This Love, This Hate is Burning Me Away
by pineapplegoddess
Summary: Chelsea Rivers is a childhood friend of the Mercers, also Bobby's ex-lover. Two years after Bobby broke her heart she has to face her past and the death of Evelyn Mercer, her almost adoptive mother. Will this bring them all close again or will Bobby be the same old Bobby?... Bobby Mercer / OC ... Edited
1. The Funeral

**Hey everyone! I re-edited this story recently (May 2013). I like to go through and edit a couple years after I finish a story just because I learn more and find more mistakes. This story had a lot of mistakes and was very choppy. If you catch anything else that I might have missed please let me know. I hope you enjoy and please as always review. **

I am very good friends with the Mercers, I've known them since I was a little girl. We lived close to each other and we bonded over hockey and skating. Their mother Evelyn Mercer was practically my mother, she let me stay at their house when my mother would go on a bender. Evelyn knew about my parents, my mother being a literal crack whore and my father was a dead beat. She showed the most compassion to me.

That's why I'm standing here wondering what the hell I'm doing standing behind a tree at this woman's funeral? _Oh ya that's right, that one man. Bobby Mercer. _Even though I loved them all I couldn't face him, not right now, not like this_. Speak of the devil there he is._ He was sitting with his brothers that he hadn't seen for years. I personally hadn't seen him in at least 2 years, since he just up and left, Jerry had told me he was in jail, I just laughed. The bastard literally left me and ended up in jail, shows what he knows about getting away with shit.

_Oh Jerry, he always knew how to talk in awkward situations, or to try and make you feel better. _I gave a faint smile as he talked about his mother and wiped away a small tear as it fell down my cheek. I watched as the youngest brother walk up to the podium, he looked lost, confused and out of place. Within seconds of him standing up and beginning to speak, Jack began to cry. I had to resist the urge to run and comfort him. _My poor Jackie_. It always broke my heart seeing him cry, knowing his past made the pain he felt all the more real. Bobby stood up from his seat and helped his brother down to the podium. He announced the lunch that would be served over at Jerry's and then joined his brothers back at their seats.

"Chelsea, I haven't seen you around here in a while." said a voice behind me. I turned around with a smirk taking my eyes off the funeral.

"Hey Green, I've been around I just haven't been doing anything to get you called." I said.

"Why are you all the way back here? You should be in the front row with Jerry, Jack, and Bobby. Evelyn thought of you like a daughter you know?" he said as I nodded.

"Yeah, I know." I said solemnly. "There is a seat for me there."

"Cause of Bobby?" Green asked looking at me with pity. I didn't know if I should be thankful for that look or offended.

"Yeah, I don't think Evelyn would appreciate a big, loud, potentially violent argument at her funeral." I said with a slight smile in the corner of my lips. "Well Green, your little pet Detective over there looks lonely, you better go keep him company." I said gesturing towards the mouse of a man about a couple yards away from where we were. "I better get going." I said turning around and walked towards my car. When I was about 5 feet from my car when I got that weird feeling someone was watching you. I turned around and my eyes met with those of the pet Detective, he was standing where I had been moments before next to Green. He was staring at me intently and quite frankly freaking me out. I gave him a scoff and turned to open my car door meeting Bobby's eyes from across the cemetery. We stared each other down, my movements became slow as I threw my purse on the seat. After what seemed like minutes I broke the contact by stepping into the car. I sped off in the direction of home, passing the brothers; none of them noticed me except for Bobby who was still watching me. I shook my head and continued on my way home.


	2. Messages and Work

I walked into my small apartment taking my jacket, gloves, and scarf off. Like a ridiculous habit I walked over to the answering machine that was blinking a red glowing 4. I hit the button as I placed everything else I was carrying in its rightful places.

"_Message one at 7 AM"_ the monotone voice said.

"_Hey Chelsea its Jer, are you going to ma's funeral? If so you can come to the reception thing Camille and I are planning afterword's. I mean you can come if you don't go to the funeral. Just call be back Hun, OK? Love ya."_

_Beep. _

"_Message two at 8 AM" _

"_Hey Chels, it's Jack. I was wondering if I'm going to see you at ma's funeral. Jer said he called and left a message but I wanted to call myself. I haven't seen you in forever and I miss you sis. Please call me back. Love ya Chels." _

Ever since Jack and Jerry called me to tell me about Evelyn I had stayed at home and gone on a drinking bender. This morning at 6 when my boss called and yelled at me for not coming in and working for the last couple of days, was when I actually got out of bed. He said I had to come in today, right at that moment. Apparently someone had broken into the restaurant and he didn't want to clean it.

"_Message three 10 AM" _

"_Hey Chelsea, its Jer again. the funeral starts in a couple of minutes. Where the hell are you, girl?" _

"_Jer who are you callin'?"_ I froze at Bobby's voice.

"_I'm calling Chels to see if she's comin' or not man. " _

"_Who knows, we will just keep a seat ready. Come on man it's about to start." _

"_We'll save a seat for you in case you come. I hope you do and you're not avoiding the idiot that interrupted half of this message. Love ya girl." _

_Beep. _

"_Message four 12:30 PM" _

"_Hey Chels its Angel. I can't get a hold of Jer I think his phone is off. I missed the funeral, my flight got fucked up. I'm going to try and come by your work. I figure you won't hang out with the boys since I'm pretty sure Bobby will be there. Maybe we can go to the house together or something. Anyway I'll stop by your work then by your house to try and find you. Love ya sis talk to you soon." _

_Beep. _

I hit the button that glowed '_Delete'._

"_Would you like to Delete all messages?" _

I hit it again to say yes. I went to my kitchen and poured a shot of whiskey and shot it back, the burning liquid falling to the pit of my empty stomach. I walked over and grabbed the phone, it was time to call everyone back, and stop being a selfish bitch. I dialed Jerry's number and placed the phone up to my ear.

_Ring, ring, ring. _

"_Hello?"_ Bobby answered. Shit.

"Hi can I please speak to Jeremiah?" I said trying to disguise my voice.

"_Chelsea?"_ he asked. Dammit.

"Please Bobby?" I pleaded, I heard him let out a sigh and then some rustling.

"_Hello?"_ Jerry said.

"Hey Jer it's me."

"_Hey girl. Where the hell have you been the last couple of days?" _He said with concern.

"I've been at home."

"_Chels."_ he said in a warning tone.

"So, I've heard from Angel, he missed his flight. That's why he wasn't there." I said ignoring his tone.

"_And you weren't there because?" _

"I was in the back."

"_I'm glad you were there even if you weren't with us. She would've wanted it that way."_ He said with a voice that was comforting.

"Ya I know" I said after a long pause on the phone between us I spoke up again. "Is Jack there? He called too; I need to talk to him."

"_Ya sure lemme get him for ya." _

"Thanks Jer Love ya."

"_Love ya to sis."_ There was an even longer pause and more rustling.

"_Hello?"_ the youngest brother said.

"Jackie! How are you doing lil brotha?"

"_I miss you sis, when am I gonna see you?" _

"Soon."

"_You're avoiding Bobby aren't you?"_ he said, it was always difficult to hide things from him.

"Jackie, you don't understand."

"_Like hell I do sis. I was in town when that whole thing went down. I know he hurt you and all but that was 2 years ago." _

"Jackie, I know but I just don't want to deal with him right now. There is already so much shit goin on."

"_Ya I know." _

"We will get together while you're in town I promise. I gotta go Cracker Jack I have work. I love you and I'll see you soon."

"_Love ya too Chels I'll see ya soon."_ Jack said then hung up the phone. He was upset, I could tell. With a small groan I placed the phone back in its holder and walked into my room I need to take a shower and get ready for work.

…

I walked down to my car as I grabbed my cell phone and tried to call Angel again for the third time, it went straight to voicemail.

"_Hey leave a message after the beep." _

_Beep _

"Hey Angel, it's me again just calling you back. Well, I'm off to work so I'll see ya there I guess. Love ya brotha." I hung up and started my car and drove.

When I got to the restaurant my boss was standing there like he had been waiting there for me for hours.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

"My mother's funeral, it's not like you needed me here Mac."

"Bullshit Chelsea."

"You know what Mac, this is my last day. When I clock out tonight I'm not coming back. I'm done putting up with your bullshit." I seethed in anger, if I couldn't take a couple days to grieve for my mother then I was done.

"Fine" he said throwing his hands in the air.

"Fine"

"Oh there is someone for you in the front of the store. He's been waiting for an hour now." He said as I rolled my eyes and walked to the front of the restaurant. Angel was sitting at the bar stool sipping on water.

"Angel!" I exclaimed as I walked around the bar.

"Chelsea!" He said as he pulled me into a hug. "Damn girl you get sexier every time I see you."

"Oh my god you have muscles!" I said laughing with fake surprise.

"How long have you been working at this broken joint?"

"Since I was 18, remember the day I got the job? I ran home so excited I had a job I forgot that you and Bobby had drove me here." I said beaming at my brother.

"I remember that. Ma thought we left you there and we got in trouble for it."

"Yeah that was a good day." I said with a smile relishing in the memories.

"HEY CHELSEA GO DOWN MEMORY LANE ON YOUR OWN TIME, GET TO WORK!" Mac yelled from the back.

"And he is more of an asshole than he was six years ago." I said as Angel laughed.

"Well what can I get for ya?" I asked as I tied on my apron.

"Bacon cheeseburger with fries." He said with his big old smile, I wrote down his order.

"I'll come and talk to you at my break." I said with a smile.

I went around and serviced the half a dozen or so patrons that were in the restaurant. Taking orders, bringing the food, busting the tables, the whole nine yards, it became repetitive. I looked up at the clock realizing it was time for my break. The only glorious thing about this job, time flew by. I walked over to where Angel still sat now done with his meal.

"Hey, thanks for waiting." I said as I sat down at the counter with a glass of water.

"Anything for you." he said smiling.

"Angel, I have to be honest with you. I think something is going on. Don't tell Bobby, cause it's probably just a coincidence and I'm probably jumping to conclusions." I blurted out.

"What is it baby girl?" Angel asked, concerned.

"The night Evelyn was killed, the restaurant was broken into." I pointed to the boarded up window. "I didn't get a call until today since we were closed for a couple days for unscheduled maintenance."

"We live in Detroit, it's probably just coincidence." Angel said taking a sip of his water.

"I was supposed to be here, closing that night, completely alone." I said taking a sip of my water.

"So what was the unscheduled maintenance?" he asked, his mood changing from nonchalant to serious.

"A pipe burst in the back." I said.

"Where were you?" he asked curious. _Of course out of all the questions you could have asked…._

"I was on a date, but that's beside the point. I think that these two crimes are connected. The police won't see it like that but that's what I think." I said trying to cover up the fact I was on a date.

"Chels I think you are nuts but you may be on to something." He said as he glanced at the boarded up window. "Well, I'll keep it in mind but I don't think it's much more than a theory."

"And you won't tell Bobby right?" I asked feeling like a child.

"I won't tell Bobby. But if we uncover something you're going to have to tell him yourself." He said.

"Ya I know." I said with a sigh.

"You gonna come by tonight?" Angel asked as he stood up and stretched his legs.

"I don't know, probably not. Mac is going to want me to close which means I won't get home until 12 or 1." I said, Angel looked disappointed but he nodded and brought me into a hug.

"I love ya, sis. Don't be a stranger, even if he is here." He said, I nodded into his chest.

"Love you too." I said. He grabbed his jacket and with a nod he walked out the door.

"Get back to work." Mac hounded from the kitchen. I retained a growl and began busting the counter where Angel and I were at. About 20 minutes later the entire place was empty. Knowing if I sat down to take another break I would get yelled at so I did something that I knew would keep my occupied. I cleaned the restaurant, more than I usually would. It was my last night after all and Evelyn always said, _leave a place better than you found it._ A couple teenagers came in for a milkshake and fries, but left about an hour after they had arrived. I looked over at the clock it was the remaining half an hour for the diner being open and there was no one there. With a content smile I started the closing process hoping that no one would come in, in the next couple minutes.

I walked into the kitchen and began unloading the dishwasher when I heard the ding of the door opening. I groaned under my breath not wanting to deal with customers at this point. Suddenly I realized it was 10:45, _who would go to a diner 15 minutes before it closed? On a weekday? Somebody was there in the diner with me, alone. _Panic coursed through my veins. I grabbed the nearest kitchen knife and headed towards the front. I cursed Mac in my head for leaving me here alone to close. _I was a liability didn't he see that? I could take care of myself but Jesus I was a small girl working alone at night in the middle of Detroit… think about it… and on top of that the diner had been broken into only a few days ago._

I cautiously walked around the corner with the knife in my hand. A guy stood in the middle of the diner, his back turned towards me. He was wearing a jacket but there were visible layers underneath, I'd have to remember to write what he looked like in my blood as I died on the floor, since there were no security cameras._ Thanks Mac, you jackass._

"Hey is there any service here?" the man said turning around. I growled at the voice as I saw his face. That stupid slicked back hair, the ever present scowl on his face, those stupid brown chocolate eyes peering at everything he looked at. "Hello?"

I growled again and set the knife down on the counter and rounded the corner making myself visible to the man.


	3. Past and Present

"What do you want Bobby?" I said as I walked towards the bar. He looked at me with a smirk and sat down where Angel had been only a few hours earlier.

"Coffee would be nice." He said smug. I spun around and grabbed a cup and a pot. I walked over to him and slammed the cup down, surprised it didn't break and filled it with coffee.

"Anything else?" I asked between clenched teeth, he was toying with me. He took a sip of the coffee and grimaced at the taste and set it down. I looked at him still expecting an answer when he just smirked I shook my head and walked back into the kitchen. The moment I was within the walls of the kitchen I leaned against the counter by the stove and inhaled a large breath of air_. Why me? This was the last thing I wanted to deal with right now._ I shut my eyes and tried to relax as I focused on my breathing.

"So, what was the knife for?" Bobby asked I jumped and opened my eyes, he standing next to me holding the knife.

"Goddammit Bobby!" I yelled.

"We're more jumpy than usual aren't we?" he said as he took another gulp of his coffee.

"Cram it." I said and walked over to the dishes and started to unload them again.

"I'm just going to sit here and talk." He said as he jumped up on the counter. "I left you here 2 years ago, for a reason. I was about to be sent to jail. Figured it would be better that way. I don't know what happened to Ma but I intend to find out. If you want in with me and the guys then you know where the house is." I continued to unload dished ignoring him. He took one last gulp from his mug set it on the counter and walked away. When he walked out of the kitchen I stood up and stared at the entry to the kitchen.

_I don't know what happened to Ma, but I intend to find out._ His words echoed in my mind.

"Goddammit." I muttered, placing a plate down and jogged into the diner area.

"Bobby," I said standing at the entry way. He stopped within a foot of the door and turned around.

"You left me because you were going to jail? Seriously that's what you're going with? What? Did you not want me to see you in hand cuffs? Did you not want me to see you be taken away in a police car? Whatever, I had seen you do all of those things and more by the time you were 15." I could feel my face turn red with heat and anger. "I have asked myself this question for the last 2 years. Why did you leave? I still can't think of an answer so I gave up. This thing with Ma is not going to change anything between us, the past is the past we don't care for each other like that anymore." I watched Bobby's face contort and his eyebrows caved into an evil look. He walked over back to the bar and slammed his hands down on the counter, causing me to jump.

"Like hell I don't care Chelsea. When they told me Ma was dead I flipped out cause no one knew where _you_ were. I didn't know if _you_ were dead or alive." He yelled, his face started to turn as red as mine.

"Oh boo fucking who Bobby! Your brothers and I have been asking that question about you for years. Which one of us was going to get the call saying you were dead, where you were?" I yelled back at him. We stood there staring daggers at each other; if we were boxing this would be the beginning of the fight where they walked around in circles. After a moment Bobby cocked his head to the side with a smirk.

"Why you so jumpy Chels? Do you think someone is after you?" He asked staring at me waiting for a telltale sign that it was true. I shook my head not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

"Don't go there, Bobby." I snapped, all emotion gone from my face.

"I'm going there, I know you. You have lived here your whole life, I've never seen you so jumpy let alone pulling a knife on customers." He said matter-of-factly. I stared at him again realizing no matter what I said or did right now there would be no convincing him that I was alright.

"I don't want to talk about it. It's nothing." I said turning around, wiping off the counter behind me. The thought of almost dying the night Ma did, scared the shit out of me. I had never felt so vulnerable in my entire life. I felt a traitor of a tear slide down my cheek. I wiped the accusing wet mark away as Bobby placed his hand on my shoulder. I slowly turned around and glanced up at him. Instead of his usual stone cold eyes and scowl, his eyes were soft and concerned and his faced was relaxed.

"What happened?" he asked. I stood there biting my tongue not wanting to say anything.

"It's not what happened, it's what didn't happen." I said giving in to his stare. "Please we have both been through enough today, I really don't want to get into this."

"Do you want to stay at Ma's place? I'll sleep on the couch. You can take her room." He said dropping the conversation, for now. _If there was someone after me, then they knew where I worked…. What was the likeliness of them knowing where I lived too? _

"Ya, that sounds like the good old times. I don't think anyone of us should be alone right now." I said covering up my concern of being alone with concern for others.

"Ya, Jer told me you have been locked up in your apartment for 3 days doing nothing but drinking." He said with a small smirk.

"Sounds about right." I said cracking a small smile. Though the conversation had become more civilized I could still feel the tension between us. All the bad shit was still in the air, but for now we would just breathe and let it be.

"What time do you get off?" he asked, I glanced over at the clock on the wall.

"Bout now."

"Don't you have to finish the dishes?" he asked with a little bit of sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Fuck the dishes, it's my last night in this hell hole anyway." I said as I untied my apron and placed it on the counter. With one last look I turned off the lights and walked out of the small diner with Bobby.

"Just follow me." He said as he got into his car.

"Yeah, yeah. I know where the house is." I said as I got into mine and started it. I turned the heater on full blast hoping it would kick in soon. Some boring song played on the radio as I followed Bobby in my crappy old Toyota.

I never would have woke up this morning to think I would be ending the day following Bobby Mercer to the home that was basically as much of my childhood as his. He pulled off of the road to the curb as I pulled in right behind him. I glanced over at the house, after all these years it still looked the same. I smiled remembering the day I first walked into their house.

_I was about 7 or 8 years old and had walked out of my house because my mom was drunk. I walked along the sidewalk not really walking to anywhere specifically, just getting away from the hell behind me. I turned the corner and stopped seeing four boys in the street yelling at each other. I walked over intrigued by the street hockey game, rather fight about street hockey. _

"_Bobby that was an illegal move." one of the boys said. He looked a little older than the other one but not the oldest, defiantly the oldest African American kid. _

"_Jer it's not illegal if I'm going for the puck and you fall over the stick." Bobby said. I recognized him from the skate rink a couple days earlier. Jerry looked at Bobby and pushed him instantly causing a scuffle. I looked over to the two other boys. The youngest of the crowd came over to me. _

"_Don't worry about them. They do this all the time." he said. "My names Jack, what's yours?" The boy couldn't have been more than 5. _

"_Chelsea. Why are they fighting?" I asked him. _

"_They're my brothers. The two that are fighting are Bobby and Jerry. The other guy just standing there laughing is Angel." He said with a smile pointing at Angel who was indeed laughing. "We are adopted." He explained. _

"_Got it." I said with a smile. _

"_Bobby tripped Jerry with his stick, and Jerry is claiming it was an illegal move." He explained the situation more. _

"_Oh" I said acting like I understood what he was talking about. Once the fight was over, Bobby helped Jerry up. _

"_Come on." Jack said to me grabbing my hand and walked me toward his brothers. _

"_Hey guys this is Chelsea, Chels this is Angel, Jerry and Bobby." He said introducing us. _

"_Hi." I said kind of shyly, not really knowing the guys. They all just stared at me like I was a walking snowman. I awkwardly stood there and stared back, after a couple moments I cleared my throat. _

"_Do you guys need a ref?" I said with a smirk trying to lighten the mood. _

"_Hell yes we do. Bobby doesn't know how to play a fair game." Jerry said as I laughed._

"_I gathered that. I wasn't here to see what happened but knowing how Bobby is on the ice I would guess Jerry is probably right." I said as Bobby looked over at me and began to size me up. "I've seen you play hockey at the rink." They all went silent, until I heard laughing to my side. _

"_I like her." Angel said still laughing. _

_I sat there for a couple of games being the ref. I was trying to be fair but Bobby was ruthless at this game. After the last game I began walking toward my house for dinner. _

"_Hey, where you going?" Jerry said as I turned around. _

"_Home." I said solemnly. _

"_Do you wanna come over for dinner? Ma loves it when we bring people over." Angel said. My eyes brightened up; from what I had heard from the other kids in the neighborhood she made good, hot food. _

"_Sure." I said with a smile. We walked down the street a little ways, when we reached a cute little house in the corner of the street. They all started dropping their sticks and gear in random places in the yard. When we got into the house Bobby let out presence known. _

"_Ma we have a guest!" Bobby yelled. An old lady came around the corner. Her hair was mostly white, and she had a few wrinkles, but that could have been because she was smiling. _

"_Oh hello dear, what is your name?" she asked in a nice mothering voice. _

"_Chelsea, Ms. Mercer." I said suddenly becoming shy again. _

"_Oh please call me Evelyn." She said with a smile. _


	4. Giving In

I cut off the engine and got out of the car.

"So what are you going to do now that you don't have a job?" Bobby asked as we walked to the door. door.

"I don't know. I am thinking of going back to school, maybe for teaching." I said. The look on his face was hysterical but at the same time hurtful.

"What's that look for? Don't think I can do it?" I said accusatory.

"Chels, you hate kids." he said back as we walked through the door. Before we walked further in the house I stopped him and looked up to his face.

"That was 2 years ago, I've changed." I simply stated and continued into the house. I looked around as thousands of memories hit me at once, everything looked exactly the same.

I smirked at the updated pictures in the living room and walked closer. Jerry and his family was smiling back at me, Angel in his uniform, Jackie screaming into the microphone, myself smiling painfully in the Diner after getting yelled at by Evelyn to not flip the camera off. The most updated photo Evelyn had of Bobby was a picture I had taken of him at my birthday while we were still together. I shook my head.

Bobby walked up behind me and moved my hair from the side of my face.

"Ever going to tell me why you're so jumpy?" He whispered in my ear_. I knew he wouldn't let that go. _

"You really want to get into this," I said not even turning to him and glanced at my watch. "At 11:30 at night?"

"Yes." He said smelling my hair. Shivers went down my spine.

"No." I said simply.

"Why not?" he asked innocently.

"Everyone's asleep." I said matter-of-factly as I turned around and looked at him, he was still uncomfortably close to me.

"Angel ain't sleepin. He's got La Vida Loca up there." He said with disgust.

"Bobby." I rolled my eyes.

"What its true." He said putting his hands up in defense.

"Fine, since I won't be able to sleep with you in my way. Yes." I said with a sigh giving in.

"Yes what?" he asked with that stupid smirk.

"Yes I think someone is following me." I said feeling like my old teenage self, giving into the Mercers because they would drive it out of me sooner or later.

"Why would you think that?" he said still smirking.

"The night Mom was killed, the diner was broken into." I said frustrated and tired.

"So? It's Detroit, shit happens." He said shrugging. But I could see his brain working and forming the plot and idea that was in my head. It was his eyes that gave it away; I could tell what he was really feeling or thinking by just looking at his eyes

"I was supposed to work that night." I said as I became very interested at the floor, knowing he could read me just as well.

"I told the cops, but they said 'it's irrelevant to the events that happened.'" I said with a mocking tone.

"Of course they did. Cops around here can find pole in a strip club. They probably would've asked me to become chief if they didn't lock me up." He said as I rolled my eye.

"Now that you know, can I go to sleep?" I asked impatiently.

"Fine, you want moms room or not?" he said becoming as frustrated as I was.

"I'll just sleep on the couch." I said

"Fine." He said turning to go up the stairs.

"Fine." I said back with venom. "Drama Queen" I whispered as I rearranged the pillows.

"Sissy Bitch." I heard Bobby whisper as he walked up the stairs. I smirked and grabbed the two blankets that were draped over the back of the couch and curled up to begin the winding down. I relaxed into the couch with a sigh. _What a day… a funeral, quitting my job, reunions, and I yet ended up back to where it all started._ I felt a tear start to go down my cheek. This time I didn't try to keep them in, I let them fall.

_How could Evelyn be dead? She wasn't supposed to die! She was an angel and angels don't die, at least in my world. Bobby. _I let out a growl. _God that man could get on my nerves. He wasn't in control of me; he couldn't make me do anything. But lying or not telling him information seemed to be worse than telling him the truth. _

As the tears began to dry and my eyes became heavy, my mind began to wonder to old times where I had decided lying or not telling Bobby was the best idea, when in fact it wasn't.

_I was 16, I had 'the world's greatest' boyfriend, my grades were decent, and I had the 4 best guy friends in the world. Unfortunately as it always happens with young love I spent more time with Charlie than with the brothers. _

_It was a wonderful day outside as I walked home with Charlie, 60 degree weather with the sun shining and some clouds in the sky. A couple of guys around the same age as us were walking in our direction._

"_Hey." Charlie said nodding to the guys, being polite. _

"_Well, well, well what do have here? Two white kids in the wrong part of town, bein' too friendly, that don't sit well with us. Does it boys?" The guys who were standing behind the one who was talking nodded their heads in approval. Charlie was sweet but not very street smart, he had moved from a rich town to Detroit for his father's job. Unfortunately in this town being sweet could get you killed. _

"_Hey guys, sorry about him. It's been a rough day and we're just passing through." I said grabbing Charlie's arm and trying to lead him away from the situation._

"_Man, learn to control your bitch." the guy said. I froze and looked up at Charlie, waiting for him to defend me. If I was with any of the brothers the guy would already be bleeding. Charlie just stood there his lips forming a thin line. I cleared my throat, he didn't even flinch, I rolled my eyes. Guess I'll have to defend myself. _

"_Excuse me? What the fuck did you just call me?" I said with a scowl as Charlie grabbed my arm._

"_Chels, think about this there are 3 of them and 2 of us. We're outnumbered; don't start shit you can't finish." he whispered into my ear. I scoffed at him. _

"_Oh grow a pair." I told Charlie pushing him away and glaring at him. If the brothers ever found out about this they would try to 'make a man out of him.' _

"_Ooh, we have a feisty one here fellas." The man said. _

"_Fellas?" I said in a mocking tone and a smirk. "What kind of a petty thug calls his gang fellas?" The guys were looking back and forth at each other. _

"_Chels, what are you doing? We need to leave now." He whispered again. _

"_Oh you're not going anywhere." the guy said. "Not until we have had our fun."_

_My heart started to race, the adrenaline rush starting to run through my body. My arms began to get the familiar tense feeling that could only be satisfied by punching something. I clenched my hands into fists as Charlie grabbed my wrist._

"_Come on Chels." He said in a state of panic, beginning to tug my arm. I tore my arm out of his grip, finally hitting the boiling point with the situation and Charlie himself. _

"_What the fuck is wrong with you? You call yourself a man? Have you even won a fight let alone been in one? Do you even know how to punch?" I yelled at Charlie as his eyes widened in shock. He shook his head, turned around and left. I could feel the heat in my face as I became angrier. He left me? He fucking left me!_

"_Well darling," the guy started as I turned to look at him, "looks like you're ours." the guy said with a disgusting smirk. This was that time when I began regretting being a hot head and spouting off my mouth. I could defend myself but there were 3 guys in front of me. _

"_Shit." I muttered to myself as the guys grinned at me. _

…_..._

_The pain in my ribs was unmistakable, that bastard had kicked me in my side at least 3 of my ribs were broken. I limped down to the Mercers house, moaning in pain with each step. I felt, looked and sounded like a zombie walking down the street. I walked up to the door and checked my watch, everyone should be home, it was dinner time after all. I lifted my hand to knock on the door but then thought about it for a minute. I hadn't been here for a couple weeks, always going over to Charlie's house for dinner. Eh, fuck him we're so done after this stunt. I knocked on the door a couple of times with my right hand while my left grabbed my ribs. I winced every time my knuckles hit the door since they were torn and bloody. I felt a small trickle of blood drip down the side of my face. Damn. I could hear the footsteps coming closer to the door. Jerry opened the door; the look on his face was horrific._

"_Oh my God! Chels, what the hell happened?" he said in a rather loud voice as he guided me in the living room and sat me on the couch. _

"_Charlie." I muttered looking up at him. I could hear the chairs from the dining room moving and footsteps coming towards the living room. _

"_Wait, Charlie did this to you?" he said with uncertainty in his voice. Everyone gathered around with making different sounds as they saw me. I looked at the floor not wanting to see the pain in their eyes. _

"_Oh good heavens, Jack go get the first aid kit." Evelyn said as I felt the couch dip as Jerry sat next to me. _

"_No, it's what Charlie didn't do that did this." I explained glancing up at the boys, anger in their eyes. I was pretty sure at that moment the brothers were going to kill Charlie. Evelyn sat in front of me on the table and rifled through her first aid kit. _

"_What happened, honey?" she said as she poured some alcohol on a cotton ball and touched it to the cut on my head. I winced at the stinging pain. _

"_Charlie and I were walking home when a group of thugs came up to us. Charlie was a pussy and ran off and left me there to defend myself." I said summing up the story. _

"_Chelsea! Watch your language. Just because you're beat to hell doesn't mean I won't put soap in your mouth. " she said._

"_Yes mom." I said refraining from rolling my eyes. Jack walked over to the chair next to the couch as he watched Evelyn clean my cuts. Bobby and Angel were standing behind Evelyn looking like they were going to hit something. I could see them working things out, silently communicating to each other… They were plotting what they were going to do._

"_Damn, the rest of the gauze is in the bathroom. Hold on a second honey." She said as she got up and ran up the stairs._

"_Bobby? Angel?" I said getting their attention as they both looked at me. They had trusted Charlie, they trusted him to keep me safe. It was going to be a long while for me to get another boyfriend, I thought to myself._

"_I don't want you guys to do anything." I said. They both were about to protest, but I interrupted them. "I want Charlie to see me tomorrow morning. I want him to see what those guys did to me. What he could've prevented. I want to see him feel ashamed of himself. After that you can do whatever the hell you want to as long as you don't kill him." I said as they both nodded their heads in understanding._

_Evelyn came running down the stairs with more gauze her hand. She sat back where she was before and began to wrap my wounds._

…_..._

_Evelyn let me stay the night on the couch. When I woke up the next morning I was in more pain the pain had enhanced significantly. The swelling on my face had gone down considerably and the bleeding had stopped but the bruises continued to grow. As soon as everyone had woken up and come down the stairs we sat in the kitchen and silently ate our cereal. _

_When we were finished it was a silent understanding that we should be ready to walk to school in 15 minutes. We all met at the entry way and walked out of the house together. Bobby led the way as soon as we were down the block he lit up a cigarette. Jerry and Angel walked behind him and Jack and I were in the back holding hands. _

"_Are you OK?" he asked me with concerned eyes._

"_Yes, Jackie boy I'm fine." I said in the sweet voice I always used with Jack. "We won't be able to play hockey or wrestle for a while but I'm fine." I winced at the pain that was shooting through my head, the Advil that Ma had given me wasn't kicking in yet. The rest of the walk was relatively silent but the moment we got onto school grounds we began to search for Charlie._

"_There." Jerry said pointing to Charlie who was at his locker. I looked over and saw him acting like nothing had happened. The anger I had yesterday came back within seconds and I was basically shaking barely able to contain it. Without looking at the brothers I bee lined straight to Charlie, shoving people and onlookers out of my way. As I stepped closer the anger built within, the pain from my injuries increased for a moment then dulled away, ah the glory of adrenaline. I walked up to him at his locker and slammed it shut for him as he looked at me startled then did a double take at my injuries. He didn't say anything he just stared. I snarled at him realizing he didn't have enough balls to call me and see if I was alive last night. The moment his mouth opened I couldn't hold back. _

"_Oh my God Chelsea! What -" he began as I cut him off by decking him square in the face. The surge of pain at the disrespect and hurt he had put me through hit me. I decked him again and again and again. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my midsection carefully and pulled me off of Charlie. I tried to fight off the person holding me but with no such luck. I began to scream at Charlie who was lying in the middle of the hall all bloody and holding his nose. _

"_WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK HAPPENED? YOU LEFT ME ALONE WITH 3 THUGS IN A DESERTED ALLY WAY! YOURE LUCKY I WASNT RAPED! YOURE LUCKY IM NOT DEAD CAUSE YOU WOULD BE TOO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as the person who had me dragged me back to my boys. I realized then that it was Bobby who had a hold of me. _

"_You alright?" Bobby asked as he took my face in his hands. I nodded unable to speak through my exhausted breaths. "Little fucking spit fire." He smirked at me. _

"_Anything hurt?" Jerry asked. _

"_Yeah, but I don't care." I said, looking back to Bobby. "After class I want one of those cigs." I said pointing to him with my wrapped knuckled hand that was bleeding through the bandage once again. _

"_Done. I'm fucking proud of you." He said as he draped his arm around my shoulders. _

"_We all are." Angel said as we walked down the hall to our separate classes. _

"_Miss Rivers, Mercer's I would like all five of you in my office at once." The principle said as he spotted us walking down the hall. We all turned around at the man and rolled our eyes._

"_Yes Mr. Allen." We all said in unison. We were directly escorted into his office not having to wait, call it the Mercer VIP status. We sat there together as a family and told him the story of what happened yesterday and the retaliation that happened today. He shook his head as he tried to hide a smirk. _

"_You're all suspended for a week with a month of detention. Most people think that's being lenient considering Ms. Rivers broke Charlie's nose. Speaking of, Ms. Rivers if you need to feel free to take another week to fully heal from yesterday's traumatic events." He said as he excused us from his office. _

_We all sat in chairs outside of the office as we waited for Evelyn to come pick us up. After 2 hours of waiting she showed up looking a bit angry. We stood up getting ready to leave as she muttered a 'sit down' at us as she walked straight to the principal's office, like I said VIP Mercer status. I sat in between Bobby and Jerry as Jackie and Angel sat next to us, we all sat there looking angry and amused._

"_I guess we won't have to take care of Charlie, Angel, Chels did it for us." Bobby said in a smart ass tone, we all burst out in laughter. I looked at my brothers as we sat and laughed about the situation all of them with smiling faces and pride in their eyes. That's when it dawned on me that no matter what I did, or tried to do, they would be there for me, to keep me safe, to support me and be my family. I looked up at Bobby with his slicked hair and mischief in his eyes. There was this feeling that sparked in my chest as he stared back at me. I smiled and looked away calmly as I realized at that exact moment… that I was in love with Bobby. _


	5. It's Detroit

I awoke the following morning with the sun light hitting my face and a nice kink in my neck. I struggled to sit up on the couch as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I gave out a yawn and stood up and stretched. _I should go make breakfast_. I thought to myself considering none of the boys would be awake for a little while. Plus it would be a nice surprise considering Bobby was the only one who knew I had stayed the night. I stumbled into the kitchen and to the fridge and took out the makings for eggs and bacon. I started up the coffee pot and some toast as to my surprise Jack walked in.

"Morning Jackie." I said nonchalantly as if this was an everyday occurrence.

"When did you get in?" he asked sleepily as he walked over and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Last night." I said, hoping he would drop it from there.

"What made you decide to stay here?" he said as he looked at me quizzically. The look in my eyes must have said it as he let out a groan of disapproval and lit up a cigarette. "So what did he do swipe you off your feet again?" The cigarette between his lips making his words sound more harsh then they really were.

"It's not like that." I said. He raised his eyebrows as if to say _really._ "The night Ma was killed I think I was supposed to be killed to."

"What makes you figure that?" he asked blowing out some smoke.

"The store was broken into." I said as I flipped the bacon.

"It's Detroit." He said simply.

"It's Detroit, It's Detroit, It's Detroit... That's all I ever hear. Yes, I know fully well of where I live and it's a shitty place but when my place of business is broken into on the day that my mother is killed and I am supposed to be working that same night, makes me believe someone is after me. Especially since I was with mom all week." I said snapping at him. He looked at me like a kicked puppy, that look always made me feel so guilty raising my voice a half an octave level.

"Jackie I'm sorry for bursting out like that, but that's exactly what everyone has been telling me. Bobby came by the diner last night to talk, we didn't resolve anything but he suggested if they knew where I worked, and they probably knew where I lived. So it was a better idea staying here with you three strong macho men than at home by myself." I said smiling trying to lighten the mood a little. He gave me a smirk in response letting me know he was fine as I turned around to prep the pan to make eggs.

"Are you going to help me make turkey dinner later?" I asked him after a couple minutes of comfortable silence.

"Sure." he said sounding not very interested in the subject.

"How many eggs do you want?" I said breaking open an egg. The sound of the egg sizzling against the heat of the pan came to my ears along with faint footsteps behind me.

"Two." Jackie replied putting out his cigarette.

"Hey Angel, how many eggs do you want?" I asked still facing the stove.

"Four. How the hell do you do that? Mom could do it too, it's really creepy." Angel said as he sat down at the table.

"Woman's intuition I guess." I said turning around for a smirk at the piece of glass by the stove that stored bowls. Only Ma and I knew about it we could see what was going on behind us with no one knowing what was going on. I plated Jack's and Angel's eggs and handed them out. I made my own and took a seat next to the two of them. It was a nice comfortable silent breakfast. Before anyone could say anything Angel took the last bite of his egg and darted out of the room. Jack and I sat there for a moment looking at each other and continued to eat when we could hear the descending angry footsteps running down the stair case.

"Loco Ono is not staying in this house!" Bobby's voice echoed through the house from what I guessed was the living room. Jack and I glanced at each other again and couldn't help but laugh.

"Bullshit Bobby!" Angel said.

"I don't care. La Vida Loca ain't staying in this house one more night. So get her stuff-"Bobby yelled as Jerry could be heard laughing his ass off in the same room.

"So, it's your house?" Angel said as the laughter became too intense and I just let it out. Jack followed not far behind.

"This ain't the homeless shelter." Bobby said ignoring the obnoxious laughter.

"You not running shit Bobby! You not!" Angel yelled back.

"Hey Bobby." I heard Sofi pipe up with her accent. She began speaking in Spanish which I'm sure nobody understood. I couldn't control myself any longer as I stood up from the table and walked over to the entry way to the kitchen where I could see the majority of the people screaming at each other. I felt Jack right behind me, unable to contain his curiosity.

"Baby, why don't you go back upstairs? I've got this covered." Angel said.

"What's wrong with you?" Sofi said towards Bobby.

"Go back upstairs." Angel pleaded.

"Why do you let him talk to me like that?" She whined. I could feel the tension from where I was standing. I walked forward figuring this would be a great time for a mini intervention.

"Guys." I started. No one listened and the continued arguing.

"Was I speaking Spanish?" Bobby asked.

"What's your problem?" Sofi said.

"Hey Guys." I tried again, getting a little into the argument, becoming frustrated that I was being ignored.

"Can you stop talking to my girl like that, man?" Angel said.

_Oh my God enough of this shit._

"HEY GUYS!" I yelled everyone's attention was now on me. "Hi Sofi, you should go upstairs for a minute while they settle this out. Angel and Bobby get in the living room."

"That's what I'm talking about." Angel said smirking.

"Shut it." I snapped my finger at him.

"She wasn't your girl as of yesterday man. She had another man." Bobby stated.

"So now she is with me." he said as we all walked into the living room together.

"Angel shut it. Now Bobby you're gonna have to deal with La Vida Loca." I said to both of them turning to me when I addressed them. Angel opened his mouth to interrupt me.

"Angel Shut it." I said as I raised my hand in mock stop. I glared at Bobby with my hand still up to Angel, waiting for an answer.

"Alright, let's just play some fucking Turkey Cup, man. How about that?" Bobby said defeated. I walked back into the kitchen and Jack was putting the burned eggs and bacon in the garbage.

"So much for breakfast, do you need any help Jack?" I asked.

"No its alright." He said solemnly.

"OK, I'll start getting the turkey and the fixings ready." I stated. Jack and I made small talk like, how's work, how's music, stupid stuff like that, while we were preparing the glorious meal. Once we got the turkey in the oven we worked on the fixings.

"I got the rest." Jack said. I looked over at him.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. Least I can do since you attempted to make breakfast." He joked.

"Asshole." I said joking back as I untied my apron and set it on the table. I walked over to the fridge and grabbed a beer and made my way to the living room. I walked over to the couch that was my make shift bed and sat down next to Bobby, put my feet up on the coffee table. He gave me a curious look as he stared at the beer in my hands.

"Hey, can I have a cold one?" he asked.

"There is a bunch in the fridge. Feel welcome to get one." I said as I took a long pull from the bottle and everyone but Bobby let out a laugh. I glanced in Bobby's direction while the beer was still touching my lips, he was smirking, the smirk that would make women's panties melt. I slowly lowered the bottle keeping eye contact with Bobby. I glanced over to see what we were watching; the Hockey game of course was on. I smiled at the memories of dinners, watching the game until the food was ready.


	6. Turkey Puck

"Don't start man." Bobby told Angel who was throwing things at him. Angel continued with a smirk.

"Why do you always do that?" Bobby asked becoming aggravated.

"Shut up." Angel said as he continued to do so, I smirked to myself seeing the brothers interact. It felt like the good old times.

"To be aggravating." Jerry said as he sat on the chair and drank his beer concentrating on the game.

"To be aggravating." Angel mocked him. Since Bobby had stopped giving Angel attention he began throwing them at Jerry.

"Chill out man. I'm watching' the game. Come on." Jerry said trying to ignore the situation, but he continued.

"Why don't y'all hold that down." Jerry said as I tried to keep from laughing. "Hold that down man." I could see out of the corner of my eye, Bobby kept throwing them back at Angel.

"Ya know Bobby if you keep throwing them back he will continue throwing them at you." I said as he glanced over and rolled his eyes.

"You a woman." Angel said to Jerry, trying to egg him on.

"Get him Jerry." Bobby said.

"Try it one more time." Jerry warned.

"What you gonna do?" Angel challenged with a smirk.

"You'll see." Jerry said

"Big ass teeth. Bite me?" Angel said with a smile, I let out the laugh that I was holding as Angel chomped at him.

"You do got some big ass teeth Jerry." I said as Bobby cracked up too. I could faintly hear Jackie laughing in the kitchen. The moment Angel threw another one; Jerry got up and tackled him.

"Yeah, get him Jerry! The gorgeous black ladies of wrestling! Nitro and Midnight! Nitro's got Midnight in a headlock! Get him, Jerry! Midnight's trying to be up, but Nitro's on him!" Bobby said in between laughing at them both.

"Come on man let's eat. Bring out the Bird." Angel said as he walked away from the situation he caused.

"I'll go see where were at with dinner." I said as I got up from the couch and walked through the dining room into the kitchen. I could feel all three of them staring at me, the moment I was out of sight I could hear their mumbling back and forth.

"Hey Jackie, where we at?" I asked with the smells of thanksgiving hit the air around me. Jack brought out perfectly browned bread rolls from the oven.

"And were ready!" he said. "Just gotta transport the food."

"Excellent." I said clapping my hands together and grabbing the various dishes and walked them into the dining room. I glanced over into the living room every time I walked into the dining room, they were still mumbling to each other which sparked my curiosity. Jack and I stood in the dining room making sure everything was there and ready.

"Alright boys, turkey time." I yelled into the living room. Within seconds all the men were in the dining room at their respected seats.

"Damn, you guys went all out." Angel said as he dipped his finger in the cranberry sauce. I slapped his hand as Bobby looked at all of us from the head of the table. Bobby held out his hand to me as I reluctantly took it and gave Angel my left hand. Jerry linked his hand with Bobby's other and Jack linked his with Jerry. Angel and Jack awkwardly struggled to reach for each other's hands not ever doing this before, since they would always link with ma.

"Jesus Christ our lord and savior, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food that we are about to receive. And thank you for bringing us together. Amen." Bobby said as he raised his head. We all let go of each other's hands and sat down and began to eat. An awkward silence fell upon the table. None of us had really sat down as a family like this all together since right after high school.

"Pass me the salad man." Jerry said to Jack breaking the silence for just one moment. I nibbled on a roll as I looked at the brothers; I caught them all, including myself glancing over to ma's empty chair at the other end of the table.

"Close your mouth Angel, you think you're a cow or something" Jerry said looking over at Angel who immediately closed his mouth. After a couple more minutes of unbearable silence it was finally broken.

"To hell with this man. Let's go get a pickup game. I wanna see some quick sticks and some tight passing." Bobby said standing up and placing his napkin on the table.

"It's too cold man. I didn't come all the way back out here to play no hockey." Angel said as he shoveled in some mashed potatoes.

"Come on ladies, let's show these guys some fucking skills!" Bobby said as he started to get riled up.

"I'll clean up, you guys go." I said shaking my head at Bobby but relieved that he had stopped this awkward dinner.

"No, you have to go. You have to be on my team so we can teach these ladies how to play Hockey." Bobby said as everyone nodded not wanting to leave me out of the loop.

"Fine, give me 20 minutes to clean up and find my gear." I said as we all broke off and either cleaned up the mistake of a meal or went to go find our gear.

…...

"Yeah come on bring it." Bobby yelled as we skated on the ice. We were about 20 minutes into the game and Bobby was already hogging the puck even when I had an open shot. The people we were playing against were winning by one point, which pissed me off even more.

"Pass me the puck Bobby!" I screamed at him as he smirked and still he refused to. I growled at his child like behavior and decided what I had to do. I snuck up to his side and skated as fast as I could, he didn't even see me coming as my body violently collided with his sending him to the ground. He looked up at me in shock, as I skated away with the puck. I was unsure if the look was warranted for the fact that we were on the same team or that fact I had knocked him on his ass.

"Oh man." Angel said as he saw Bobby still sitting on the ice. I shot the puck into the goal scoring a point and tying the game.

"Who am I? That's right I am the winna." I said cheering as I skated back towards Bobby who had just got up.

"Holy shit! You knocked me on my ass." he said pointing his finger at me.

"Damn straight, so next time pass me the damn puck." I said as I skated passed him and to my position.

After the incident with Bobby the entire game became more aggressive. Bobby was shoving into people more violently than before and so was the other team. I guess proving that I wasn't made of glass showed everyone that I could take a hit.

I had the puck, this was going to be the winning goal. I skated closer and closer to the goal a smile coming to my face as I got into the position to hit it in from faraway when I was suddenly knocked to the ground. I looked up as two people from the opposing team skated away with a high five, with the puck. I laid there on the ice feeling the bruises that were forming from playing with the guys all day.

"You alright?" Bobby said as he stood above me. I nodded as I sat up and watched him skate off to the two players that had knocked me down, like I had done with Bobby he collided into both of them with brute force sending them to the ground. Jack skated over to me as I pulled myself up.

"You alright? That was a nasty hit." He said, I nodded once again remembering how to breath. The other team had won as they skated off in victory; everyone skated over to where we had started the game.

"What now?" I asked as they all stood there taking sips of water.

"Aren't we going to take to that one guy about Ma's will?" Angel asked Jerry as he nodded out of breath.

"All right." I said as I took my skates off and put on my shoes, everyone else followed. "I'll see you guys at the house."

"Chelsea, you've known Ma for as long as we have. You're probably in the will." Angel said as Jerry and Jack nodded their heads in agreement. I looked over at Bobby who was concentrating on tying his shoes.

"Okay, let's do this." I said as we all made our way to Jerry's car.

…...

"Gentleman, Chelsea, I'm truly sorry about your mother. Although I only met Evelyn the one time she made quite the impression. I know it's difficult to deal with mundane financial matters while your heart still grieves for a loved one." The man in front of us said.

"How much do we get?" Jack asked as Bobby smacked him upside the head while I punched him in the arm. Jerry shook his head next to me thinking how ridiculous his kid brother was being. The man who was in front of us excused himself and walked to the other side of the large room.

"Come on man." Jerry whispered.

"Jack what the-?" Angel said as he sat on the other side of Bobby.

"Stupid ass, Jack what's wrong with you?" Jerry said as the man came back to the table with the safety deposit box in his hands.

"This is the contents of your mother's safety deposit box. I'll leave you to look through it." He placed the items on the table and then left the room. Bobby grabbed it and opened it up and started pulling the contents out and handing it to the proper people.

"The adoption papers." Jack said, I began to feel slightly awkward for being there. _At least I'm here for moral support._ I smiled to Jack as he read over the paper.

"Henry Ford Hospital. So I am from Detroit." Jerry said in surprise.

"Lansing, Michigan. " Jack said.

"My mom was 16?" Jerry said in shock.

"I got any papers in there?" Angel asked as Bobby shook his head.

"No." he simply replied.

"I don't." Angel said as if he was expecting a different answer.

"No." Bobby said looking slightly disappointed

"You got any papers in there?" Angel asked as Bobby shook his head again, continuing to take things out from the box.

"Chels, here ya go." Bobby said and handed me a couple sheets of paper. I looked up at him as I took the papers in confusion. I looked at the papers in my hands and realized they were my mother's obituary, along with a letter from Evelyn. I smirked at her hand writing, she really did think of me as one of her own.

"Whoa, 1969, I didn't know mom went to Woodstock." Jack said pulling out of my thoughts as he held the ticket in his hand.

"You didn't know mom was a hippie?" Bobby said stopping for a moment to look at his brother. He shook his head and continued rifling through the box.

"Oh here we go." Bobby said as he stood up with money in hand. All the guys pocketed their papers and stood up, I followed suit not really knowing what else to do.

"I ain't got no papers in there, man?" Angel said again concerned there was nothing for him.

"There's some paper right there." Bobby said as he handed Angel some of the money, then handed some to Jerry. I was looking at my nails when a wad of cash interrupted my view. I took the money and looked up at Bobby on confusion as he mouthed 'Later'.

"What about me?" Jack asked hurt that he didn't get any money as Bobby pocketed the rest of it.

"Uh huh, that will look good on you?" Bobby said as he handed Jack a necklace and closed the box.

"You're fucking kidding me?" Jack complained as he held the necklace.

"Oh quit crying." I said as I handed him some of the money and took the necklace from him.

"Come on I got something to show y'all." Jerry said as we walked out the door to the elevator.

"Hey, I hate to be a buzz kill but I'm gonna head home. Come pick me up if you go to the bar OK?" I said wanting some time alone as well as get some new clothes, plus the walk would clear my head.

"OK." Jerry said as we embraced in a hug.

"Plus I know where you're taking them." I whispered in his ear causing him to smile as I pulled away.

"Do you need a ride?" He asked.

"Nah man, I can walk it's not too far." I said as I gave Jack and Angel a hug. I walked away from the brothers and ironically looked back in time to see Bobby staring at me as I walked away, I shook my head and began my walk home.


	7. What do ya know?

I walked into my small apartment, feeling like I hadn't been here in forever. I breathed in at the sight of my random messy apartment. With a sigh I walked into my bedroom, grabbed a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom for a nice hot shower. I stared the shower as I undressed and decided to brush my hair and teeth before jumping in the shower. I caught my reflection as I reached for the tooth paste, dark circles forming around my eyes, smeared makeup from the night before, chapped tired lips which looked cherry red against my pale skin. I started brushing my teeth as I stared at my reflection.

_How did I even get to this point? Bobby and I are on talking terms. The boys and I spending time together like back in the old days…_

A sudden pain of guilt hit my chest as I spit the toothpaste out of my mouth.

_Why did it have to take Ma's death to bring us all together again? _

With a long sigh I walked into the shower and under the warm water and slowly let it relax my muscles. Just in time for the water to turn ice cold.

"Perfect." I mumbled as I frantically washed my body, shivering and trying to cause friction with the loofa to keep me warm. After I was convinced I was clean enough I jumped out of the frozen tundra of a shower and huddled in my warm winter robe. I sat in my bathroom huddled in the corner like a drug addict waiting for their drug of choice to kick in. The apartment was dead silent like usually except for my frantic breathing and shivering. I pondered everything from the last couple days for what seemed like the millionth time. It would only be a matter of time until we figured this all out, especially with Bobby at the lead. Feeling warm enough for my muscles to move without limbs snapping off I stood up and dressed in a simple low neck black long sleeved shirt and jeans. As I was putting on some make up to hide my dark circles I heard a honk from outside. I walked over to the window to see Jerry's car out in the parking lot waiting for me.

…...

Once we got to the bar we walked straight to the counter and ordered whiskey shots and beer. The car ride over was relatively silent but comfortable in a way. Once the bar tender placed the shots of whiskey in front of us we grabbed them as Bobby spoke up.

"Your attention please, I wanna make a toast. To Evelyn Mercer, the greatest mother four degenerate bastards and one bitch ever had." Bobby said smirking as we clinked our glasses together and downed the shots.

"I'm not a Bitch." I said with faux hurt as I chased the whiskey with some beer.

"No Jackie is." Bobby said as I choked on my beer, laughing.

"Just kidding, you all know I'm a bitch." I said feeling the whiskey buzzing through my veins. Everyone laughed even harder at my comment including the bar tender, Johnny.

"Johnny, can you pour us another round. And some nice warm milk for my little sister." Bobby said as he wrapped his arm round Jack's shoulders.

"I could drink you under the table." Jack said slightly slurring his speech.

"We're not talking about sperm, Jack, this is whiskey." Bobby joked as Angel laughed. I looked over at Bobby giving him a look as to say 'lighten up' as I noticed a clear table behind Bobby.

"Come on, guys." I said as I grabbed my beer and walked over to the table. Angel and Jack sat both to my sides, Bobby and Jerry sat across from us. Jack was waving back and forth in his drunken state I couldn't help but smirk.

"Jack drinks Jack! Jack drinks Jack!" Jack started saying over and over as I started laughing.

"Jackie is drunk!" I said as I sipped my beer, focusing on not having it come out of my nose.

"Jack licks ass crack and ball sack." Bobby stated almost completely sober as he drank his beer.

"Jack doesn't lick ass crack and ball sack! Jack likes boobs! Jack's got fans. Jack's got lots of fans." Jack said, by this point Angel and I was almost on the floor laughing watching our little brother. I could feel the alcohol starting to take over my body as a sense of calm came over me.

"Will you shut the hell up?" Angel said eventually coming annoyed with Jack's drunken antics.

"You remember that one time that we had Mr. Kite buy booze for us?" I asked barely slurring my words as Bobby gave me his infamous smirk.

"I don't." Jack said settling down for a second.

"You were too young for that." Angel piped up.

"I think that was the first time we had all been that drunk." Jerry said laughing at the memory.

"It was a first time for a lot of things." Bobby said as he made eye contact with me and drank his beer. I looked away hoping for a distraction as Johnny, the bartender, walked up.

"Hey, that's real goddamn bad stuff about your mom, guys." Johnny said with a sorrowful look in his eyes.

"Yeah." All of us said and nodded in agreement.

"Freaking gangs. Worms. Someone ought to step on them." Johnny said suddenly becoming angry about the situation.

"Which gang Johnny G?" Bobby said with new found interest.

"Oh shit. Here we go. I knew it." Jerry said shaking his head and rubbed his hands on his face.

"I think I heard something. The neighborhood is really upset about this." Johnny said looking at us.

"Same Old Bobby." I said as I finished my beer off.

"Momma always said 'As bright as Bobby is he just does not like to think.' Ain't no good gonna come from this." Jerry said as Johnny pulled up a chair. "Let the Police do their damn job."

"Stop with the police, man." Jack said sobering up a bit at the thought of Ma.

"Jerry half the cops in this town are crooked. They always have been you know that." I said thinking about how nonchalantly the police had treated the diner break in with Ma's murder being on the same night.

"You think the other half give two shits about another liquor store holdup?" Bobby commented, glancing in my direction. "Or a break in at a diner?"

"I'm telling you man, Green is on our side on this one." Jerry said missing the obvious feelings the majority of the people at the table had.

"Green?" Jack asked shaking his head.

"She was the only woman who ever gave a damn man. The least we can do is go and pound on a few doors and see what happens. We owe her that much." Angel said as he finished his beer.

"I agree." I said not really surprising anyone.

"Why are you acting like such a bitch, Jerry?" Bobby asked in a threatening tone.

"Okay. So what, y'all just gonna shoot up the whole town because y'all mad? " Jerry said, frustrated.

"Why not?" Angel stated matter-of-factly.

"Common, man, the people who did this are probably from the same shitty-ass streets we're from. Mom would've been the first to forgive them, and y'all know that." Jerry said.

"We can't all be saints Jerry." Bobby said with an evil smirk.

"Yeah, we can't all be saints, Jerry." Jack slurred.

"Jer, I'm not going to let those assholes walk away. I'm not going to let them sit in a jail with cable TV and good warm meals. They're going to suffer for this, and I don't give a shit where I end up because of it." I said trying to keep my rising voice down. I was glaring at Jerry, daring him to say something. When he didn't I shrugged and looked to the other brothers. Bobby was smirking at me; Jack was laughing, and Angel smiling at his beer bottle.

"All right. All right. Cool." Jerry said as he got up to go, obviously upset and frustrated.

"Bye Jerry." I said as I grabbed the rest of Jack's beer and drank it.

"Don't call me when y'all get shot up. This is Detroit in case y'all forgot." Jerry said as he walked out the door. I shook my head at him, I knew he was doing what he thought was best but this is what needed to happen.

"Ok, Tell us what's goin on man." Angel said seriously to Johnny.

"You wanna know what I heard?" Johnny said. We all shook our heads 'yes' as he began to tell us.


	8. Dirty Work

"You got a Burner?" Bobby asked Angel as we stood at the trunk of his car. We were all completely, or relatively, sober at this point. With the cold weather and the adrenaline rush of getting our hands dirty we were all bouncing in anticipation.

"I flew in." Angel said shaking his head as Bobby opened the trunk of his car.

"Be careful with my baby." Bobby said as he handed him a gun from the trunk.

"Ooh..." exclaimed Angel looking like a kid at Christmas.

"You like that? " Bobby said smirked at his younger brother.

"You got ammo?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, it's loaded little brother. Be careful." Bobby said as he looked over at Jack.

"Here, you carry the gas can." Bobby says.

"We're gonna do that gas thing?" Jack asked, I smirked and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, we're gonna do the gas thing. The only thing that scares people more than getting burnt to death is getting eaten alive. Let's go." Bobby said mocking him.

"Wait, what do I get?" Jack and I both asked as Bobby was closing the trunk.

"You coming with us? Oh." He said to Jack as he handed him a crowbar. "Here you go, sweetheart, poke 'em with that." He grabbed another gun from his trunk and handed it to me. "That's loaded too, darling."

"Don't call me that." I said as I looked at the gun, heavy in my hands. I checked the sights of the gun and got everything ready to shoot. Bobby and Angel walked towards the building leaving us behind.

"Thanks." Jack said insulted as I patted him on the back and we ran to catch up with them.

"Let's go. Five-O! I wanna see some hands!" Angel yelled into the building as all the kids started running.

"Get out! I don't wanna see any of you come back!" I yelled, feeling good to let some aggression out.

"What are you doing here?" Bobby yelled. At this point Angel and Bobby took over with the yelling as we walked further into the building. I restrained trying not to laugh as we walked through yelling out things that the police would never yell out during a raid. We got to a separate part of the building as we all squished together to see what was going on in the new room.

"The popos is here! Y'all better run, man, these white cops are crazy! They killed Cornbread! They killed him - he didn't do nothing'!" Bobby said mocking a girl, I let out a snort trying to not make it noticeable.

"Everybody put your fucking hands up!" Angel said we all had our weapons cocked pointed and ready, this was the room we wanted to be in.

"Detroit Police I wanna see your fucking hands in the air!" I said as Bobby cocked his gun.

"Sit your mother fuckin ass down!" Angel yelled to a girl who reluctantly did what she was told.

"Sit the Fuck down. Don't fucking move." Bobby said. "Over here." Bobby had found their 'leader' of sorts. Bobby and Jack walked over to the man and began to interrogate him as Angel and I stood and made sure his goons didn't try to interrupt. One of the people moved slightly, I aimed my gun to their head and yelled at them not to move. Angel left me and went to help Bobby. One of the girls in front of me started to say something.

"Shut up." I sternly told the girl pointing my gun at her.

"So they don't turn the court lights out at ten!" the guy that was being interrogated yelled. I turned slightly and looked to Angel, he gave me the same look. From the Intel that the police had told us, there were witnesses from the basketball court, but if the court closed at 10… Ma wasn't killed until later, which meant it had been planned. Whether Bobby believed him or not he didn't want to admit it.

"Let's go." Bobby said grabbing the guy.

"Where the fuck y'all takin me?" the guy asked as we dragged him out of the building, screaming curses and threats at his goons. We walked down to the court none of us saying anything to each other, once we were standing next to the court Bobby checked his watch.

"It's 10:02 and these fucking lights are still on." he said to the guy who was being held hostage by Angel and I.

"I know you know who did this homeboy." Angel said pressing the gun to the guy's head.

"This is bullshit." I said as I kept my gun firmly pressed to his side.

"Let's pop this motherfucker right now!" Bobby said getting pissed off.

"Speak up on it man." Angel said.

"Bobby, take it easy." Jack said.

"Shut up Jackie." Bobby snapped.

"Look what-" the guy was saying before Bobby shoved me out of the way. Bobby and Angel grabbed the man and dragged him over to the side of the street. "Yo man they gonna shut off they gonna shut off man!" the wanna be thug said with fear in his voice.

"The only lights that are going off are yours!" Bobby said.

"Look, look, look, look." The guy said as we all turned around, they had shut off. The hope that I had dropped at that moment, _it had been a set up. _

"You're fuckin' lucky." Bobby said letting him go.

"Told ya. Man y'all fools been played. Get off me man! Y'all don't even know who your messing with, man. Questioning me about the fucking lights and shit being off and all that." The guy kept on going and going, trying to act tough.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up man? You talk too much." Angel said as I decked the guy in the face knocking him down.

We all walked back to the car in silence and if it was possible the car ride home was even more silent. We all let the sudden knowledge that someone had murdered our mother sink in.

_Who would want to kill Ma?_

We all walked into the house, Angel was dragged up the stairs by Sofi as I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I could hear Bobby explaining to Jack what had just happened and the horrible truth behind it as they stood in the entry way. I drank my glass of water and eavesdropped on the two brothers.

"Jack, it was a questionable kill." Bobby said in a hushed tone.

"What makes you think that?" Jack said.

"Boy, it's sad, you growing up without a father. Nobody taught you anything, did they? Maybe I should've stayed around longer and held your little hand, huh sweetheart? Sometimes pros will cover up their shots with another crime, like a burglary or something, and then pay a witness to throw the cops onto the wrong suspect."

"Why would anybody wanna kill the sweetest woman in the God-damn world?" Jack asked confused.

"I dunno, Jackie. I dunno." Bobby said. "Go get some sleep, fairy." I heard Jack go up the stairs and Bobby clomp into the kitchen. I walked back over to the sink and washed the now dirty dish. Bobby sat down at the table and stared off into space. I glanced over at him curious at what he was doing.

"What are you doing?" I asked after a several moments of silence.

"Thinking." He muttered back.

"That's frightening." I commented as I laid the now clean dish out to dry, he let out a forced laugh.

"Just like old times today." He said as I turned around and leaned against the counter facing him.

"You could say that." I said. We stared daggers into each other not saying a word, the tension in the room was rising by the second. I smirked to myself knowing this shouldn't be a conversation to bring up now, but why the hell not?

"So out of curiosity sake, what's the real reason why you left me?" I said.

"Jesus Chels." Bobby said rolling his eyes.

"What? Come on! It's in the past now so just tell me what was it?" I said as he looked up at me with a grim look on his face. "What was it Bobby? Were you cheating on me? Scared of commitment?" I said as casually as I could, trying to keep a neutral tone.

"Fine." He grumbled. "I left you because I was about to be put into jail. You needed to move on from us. I was dragging you down. You never went to school like you said you were going to. You had the same job since you were 18. I left you before I went so you could get over me faster and move on with your life. " Bobby said he stood up from his seat at the table. Much like the diner there was only a table between us as we stared each other down. I thought over what he said before I said anything.

"Bobby." I began still continuing the staring contest. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." He looked confused for a second before he could say anything I continued. "I had the same job up until 2 days ago and I still haven't gone back to school. I broke apart after you left, I drank. I drank so much I was in the hospital for 2 days because I had alcohol poisoning and they had to pump my stomach. I refused to leave my apartment, when Ma had, had enough she came over and dragged my ass out to get lunch. She yelled at me in public and told me that you were Bobby and you were never going to change. To get over you and the thoughts of being with you. Couldn't you have thought for one moment that I needed to make that decision for myself? Whether you were 'dragging' me down or not?" I said trying to contain my old sparked flame of anger. Ma had told me the real reason why he had left, I wanted to see if he was actually telling me the truth or not.


	9. The Letter

We stood there still staring at one another. After a couple minutes Bobby turned around and headed towards the hallway outside of the kitchen.

"Why did you give me some of Ma's money?" I asked calmly. "It should have gone to Jack."

"Have you read the letter yet?" he asked not turning around.

"No." I said as he turned around for a moment and then walked out of the room. I grabbed another glass of water and walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. The letter in my purse was popping out as if to say 'read me'. I stared at it as I took a gulp of water and put the glass on the table. I grabbed the letter and placed it on my lap, Chelsea, was written in cursive in her handwriting. I stared at it not knowing if I should read it now. I took a shaky breath and reluctantly opened it and pulled out the letter

_Dear Chelsea,_

_ Oh darling, look at how far you have come. You used to be the little girl next door that would hang out with my boys and cause some serious trouble. You have grown into a beautiful woman. I wanted to write you this note for a long time, and I decided now was a good time to. I know you have loved Bobby since he brought you home that winter day. You had that little school girl crush, even if you didn't know it. Bobby is different from other guys as you know, but he's a good guy. I know what I said when he left you and it was right for the time. He doesn't have an excuse for what he did but he did it for you. Trust me darling. He loves you so much he wants you to be your happiest, even if that means not being with you. He may be an ass but he is a good ass. I asked him to give you Jack's share of money because I want you to go to college. I gave you more than the other boys because of this. Bobby and Jerry thought it was a beautiful plan. Plus I know you will split the money with Jack anyway. That's just how sweet you are. You were the daughter I always wanted to have. Take care of my boys for me, as well as yourself. I love you Chelsea, please use the money go into school and pursue your dreams._

_Love, Mom_

I read the letter over and over again, tears were silently falling down my face missing the paper every time.

"I'll take care of them Evelyn, I promise." I whispered with a goofy smile. I looked around for a tissue knowing there had to be at least one around here somewhere. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye by the stairs. I glanced over to see Bobby sitting there staring at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I pulled a wad of tissues from my purse. I picked out the cleanest one and wiped the tears from my face.

"Watching you." He said bluntly.

"That's not creepy." I said as I looked back down at the letter. I heard him get up and walk towards me, but I refused to look up at him. I felt the couch dip as he sat next to me and rubbed me back. I tensed for a moment at his touch, then as always I melted into it slowly relaxing. After what could have been 10 minutes I cleared my throat.

"You know Bobby, I never thought of you as the sweet caring 'I'll hold your hand' type of a guy." I said as I looked up at him. "You're worse than that." I smiled up at him as he let out a laugh.

"Well, Ma made me that way. Who knows what I would be like if it wasn't for her." He said as I nodded in approval.

"You want a beer?" he asked, I nodded a yes as he got up and walked into the kitchen. I felt weird, like some sort of weight had been lifted but at the same time I was utterly confused. I knew he loved me, all of the brothers did. I just never realized that he'd loved me differently for so long let alone now… When we dated it was almost surreal to me, I constantly doubted that he actually loved me as a girlfriend. All the guys and I would always be there for each other, but it was always different with him. It wasn't just sex and partying, raising hell and hanging out, he actually loved me.

He walked back in with the beers and handed one to me and sat back down on the couch. After a couple of minutes of drinking our beers in silence we adjusted to the couch to get more comfortable.

"Do you remember when we started that food fight my senior year?" He asked as he causally put his arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah, Jackie was still in junior high, and we were all sitting at a table in the cafeteria. Just minding our own business." I said.

"When Frankie threw his bread at you, I thought you were going to kill him." he said as I let out a laugh.

"Yeah and as I got up Jerry held me in place as you threw your pudding at Frankie... the look on his face was to die for. Then the whole cafeteria broke out into a food fight and you jerks left me standing there." I said still laughing.

"We didn't leave you there; you just chose not to run when we did." Bobby said as he laughed to himself and took a long pull from his beer.

"I looked behind me and saw no one there, you guys could have tapped my shoulder or something before you took off."

"All 4 of us were still blamed and punished for it." he said slightly changing the subject.

"Remember how Jackie would not stop asking questions and made fun of us the whole way home?"

"He's still a little pest." he said half halfheartedly "I love him though."

"Yeah, me too." I said as it went back to silence.


	10. Panic

I woke up the next morning with the stupid sun hitting my face again. _One of these days I should close the blinds before I go to bed._ I groaned a little as I got up, well at least tried to get up. I looked down to a foreign weight around my waist, it was an arm I followed the arm to meet the persons face and looked right at Bobby. He had managed to squeeze in behind me, holding me so I didn't fall off the couch. I was craning my neck to see his face but he was still asleep. I thought about all the situations of how this could go badly if one of the brothers walked in, or he let me go and I crashed to the ground. I tried to wiggle my way out of his arm and I was amazingly successful. I stood up next to the couch and looked down at his sleeping form; I smiled to myself at how peaceful he looked. I turned and began walking to the kitchen to get some bacon started. The moment the raw bacon hit the pan I heard his footsteps walk into the kitchen.

"Hey." Bobby said, as I stood staring at the bacon.

"Hey." I answered not knowing where this was going to go.

"We're gonna go and tell Jerry what we know, and drop by the store. You wanna come?" he asked as I turned around.

"As much as I love hanging out with you guys and shooting up the town, I have to go home." I said.

"OK" he said, getting ready to walk away looking defeated.

"Hey," I grabbing his attention, he turned around, "I'm still going to stay here though; I just need to go home, do a load of wash, and pick up some things. I'll be back later." That seemed to brighten him up a little. He gave me a smirk and a nod and continued walking. "And you better tell me what goes on, and include me in this. And for the love of God be careful." I yelled at his retreating form as he walked to the stairs he waved a hand to me to acknowledge I had said something but that was it. I smirked at him and went back to making breakfast.

During breakfast the brothers and I made an agreement that they would pick me up when they were done or had a breaking point to come get me. After they took off leaving a very angry and confused Sofi, I snuck out, got into my car and headed home. …...

When I got home I looked around at the areas of organized mess that I had brought upon myself. I put down my purse on the couch and grabbed the random piles of clothes throughout the small apartment and threw them in the wash. While I waited for the wash to get done I took a shower, packed a bag of clothes and stuff for the next couple days, and just straightened up the area. I threw the clothes in the dryer and laid down on the couch and let out a content breath. I tried not to think of things and was successful of keeping my mind clear until I heard a knock at the door. Like it was any other day I let out a sigh and got up, walking over to the door. I undid the lock and opened the door expecting to see one of the brothers, I mean it was still early for them to be here but it had been a couple hours. I opened the door with a smile on my face and it instantly dropped as well as my stomach. A man with a goatee that I didn't know stood there with a smirk on his face.

"Hello sweet face." The man said as millions of things flew through my mind. I looked closer at the man and saw a gun in his hand. Out of reflex I slammed the door only to have it bounce back as he blocked his with his foot. He let out a yelp in pain as I darted into the kitchen. I tried to open one of the drawers that had my gun in it but it was jammed and wouldn't open more than a couple of centimeters.

"Fuck." I said under my breath as I turned and grabbed a butcher knife. I darted around the counter over where my trashcan was. While I sat there and waited for my impending doom, that stupid saying went thought my mind of bringing a knife to a gun fight. I tried not to laugh at my brain's sense of humor as something vibrated on my leg. I frantically clawed at the vibrating phone in my pocket digging it out. I looked down at the phone as Angel popped up on the screen.

"Angel?" I said in a panicked whisper.

"What's wrong Baby girl?" he said instantly on alert at the sound in my voice.

"I think one of the shooters is here. He has a gun and I can't get to mine." I said as low as I could.

"We'll be there 2 minutes Baby Girl, keep him occupied and be careful." he said and hung up the phone, cutting off Bobby and Jack in the back ground. I sat there focusing on breathing and how to defend myself with a knife. _If he comes at me with the gun slash his arm with the gun hopefully he'll drop it, if he shoots me just keep going at the fucker till you die._

I heard a gun cock, I involuntarily tensed up at the noise. _This was it, I was going to die in my kitchen in my crappy apartment next to the trash can_. _But I wasn't going to go out alone_. I gripped the knife in my hand and got ready to jump up and stab. The footsteps got closer and closer as my heart began to beat faster and faster.

"Chelsea?" Bobby asked catching me off guard for a moment. I stood up and saw him as relief flowed through my body. He aimed his gun at the floor as soon as he saw me, I let go of the knife and leapt to him. A couple of tears fell down my cheeks as Bobby held me in his arms.

"Angel, I found her." Bobby said as I pulled out of the embrace and wiped my eyes.

"You alright?" Bobby said as he looked into my eyes.

"Let's go get this asshole." I said under my breath with determination.

"You sure, you're up to it?" He asked as I walked over to the drawer that was stuck.

"I'm going to fucking kill him." I said as I forced the drawer open, breaking it and grabbed my gun.

"That's my girl." he said and kissed the top of my head.


	11. Crazy Asshole

We walked into the Casino Restaurant. Bobby was on my left side, Angel on my right, and Jackie behind me. We were looking around for the shooters. On the way there I had debriefed the guys on what the guy looked like who had tried to attack me, they said it sounded like one of their leads for ma's shooter.

"Goatee. Goatee. Look for the man in the goatee." Angel repeated under his breath.

"There he is." Jackie said above a whisper behind me.

"Where?" Bobby said.

"Right there the guy with the goatee." Jack said as he pointed as I grabbed his hand and pushed it down.

"I can see him Jackie. Don't fucking point." Bobby warned.

"I see him. I see him. Come on lets go get him." I said when I noticed my attacker with someone else by his side. As soon as the man noticed us standing at the entrance staring at him, he pulled out a gun and began shooting.

"Get Down!" Bobby said as he and Angel grabbed my arms and pulled me down.

"Damn! Go, go, go!" the shooters yelled as we got up and ran after them. We shoved people left and right, yelling at them to clear a path way. Through the commotion Jack led the way out door with Angel while Bobby and I ran behind trying to fight through people.

"Go ahead! You fucking punks." said the store owner that tried to stop Bobby. We all ran through the door and were hit with the cold Detroit air and a small snow storm. Jack continued to run after the men who were now in their car, Jack began shooting at them.

"Get em Jackie-o! You go girl, let's get these mother fuckers" Bobby said as we ran to his car. Jack and I got in the back seat, Angel got in the front. Bobby spun out of the parking spot to pursue the other car. The snow started to come down more and more making visibility minimal.

"Punch it Bobby punch it!" Angel said. The adrenaline in the car could be felt like an electric field of energy.

"I got no traction I'm sliding all over the fucking street." Bobby said as we turned into a parked car. Bobby tried to get away from the crash but he kept sliding into more parked cars.

"Shit... shit I just scraped the whole side of my fucking car." Bobby said, starting to get frustrated.

"Get these guys before you kill us!" Jack said a panicked.

"Sit back and put your seat belt on Jack." Bobby said without any humor.

"Watch the snow man." Angel said.

"I don't give a fuck about the snow!" Bobby said as the shooters in the other car began to shoot at us.

"Shit!" we all said.

"Where the hells that shotgun Jack?" Bobby asked wanting to shoot back now.

"There's no shells." Jackie said.

"They're in the back" Bobby said as they argued about where they were.

"Bobby, just roll your fucking window down." I said he looked hesitant for a minute before he rolled his window down.

"Angel, stick that cannon out the window and bust some shots too." Bobby said.

"I'm gonna put one in the back of their heads." Angel said as I started to fire my gun at the car through Bobby's window.

"Shoot those sons-a-bitches, Angel." I said as we bounced all over the place not really ever getting a clear shot.

"Get them! Shoot that motherfucker." Bobby said as I kept shooting and Angel reloaded. The car hit some ice and swerved, I pulled the trigger out of reflex to brace myself against Bobby's seat.

"You got him!" Bobby yelled in amazement. I looked up and saw the faint shadow of one of the men in the car holding his arm.

"That's right motherfucker!" I said laughing in shock and awe of the moment. Whether my shot was what caused the car in front of us to run off the road or not, we will never know, as soon as it crashed in the snow bank I knew only trouble could follow.

"Jackie, you got your seat belt on? Watch this. Hold on." Bobby said as I leaned back in my seat, he hit the gas.

"Oh fuck." I yelled before we impacted the other car.

"Shit." Bobby and Angel said as we spun out of control. The impact had unstuck the other car as they sped down the street ice again.

"Don't let them get away! Don't let them get away!" We all yelled as Bobby punched the gas again and we went speeding towards them. Once we were close enough they began shooting again.

"I'm over this shit!" Angel said as he leaned out the window and shot at the car.

"Pop 'em, Angel Pop them! Get them!" Bobby said as the other car shot out one of our tires. Jack and I watched in horror as Angel began to fall out of the car. Jack and I slammed together to grab whatever we could and pull him back into the car.

"Whoa! Angel get your ass back in here." Bobby said as looked out the window at his tire. "Shit! We got a fucking blowout!"

"Bobby, let's just stop the car! Okay Bobby? Let's stop!" Jack said nervous and scared. I think this was the first time we ever did anything like this around Jack let alone with him. I placed my hand on his knee in reassurance.

"Shut up, Jack! I'm gonna ride this bitch out on the rim! We got them." Bobby said as the car was silent for a couple of seconds. "Ready?"

"Shit." I said knowing whatever Bobby had planned was going to hurt. He hit the gas and slammed into the other car. The car slid away on the frozen ground, not satisfied, Bobby did it again.

"We got them now!" Bobby we slammed into them for the third time.

"Get them, get them." We encouraged Bobby also letting him know he hadn't killed one of us yet.

"Hold on." he said as we impacted the car finally at just the right angle. The shooters car went spinning out of control. Bobby took this moment to sped up and hit the break while turning the wheel, crashing into them again successfully causing the shooters car to roll.

"That's what I'm talking about Bobby!" Angel said as the car came to a stop and we all filed out.

"Jackie, wait here." I said looking at Jack his was as pale as a ghost, not comfortable with what was going on. We ran towards the car checking our guns and making sure they were ready.

"Get your punk ass out of the car." Angel said to one of the shooters as he pulled him out of the car, it shooter that tried to kill me earlier.

"Fuck you!" he spat as I kicked him as hard as I could.

"That's for trying to kill me asshole." I said as Angel walked off to the other shooter with Bobby. I looked down at the man who had tried to kill me earlier today, I involuntarily growled.

"That's for causing all of this fucking trouble." I said kicked him again.

"And this is for my Ma." I said as I aimed my gun at his head and fired. The man laid limply in front of me and I couldn't help but stare at him as blood pooled around his head.

"Get his wallet." Bobby said pulling me out of my trance with the dead. I leaned down and dug around the dead shooters pockets as Bobby and Angel each fired a shot into the other guy.

"Let's get the fuck out of here man." Angel said as we all turned to walk back to Bobby's trashed car.

_Oh my poor Jackie._ I thought as I saw him standing there still trying to wipe away tears so his brothers wouldn't see. I placed my hand on his arm and guided him back into the car. We drove home in silence. Different emotions were floating around the car, the moment I saw our street I let out a sigh of relief.


	12. Home, Shirts, and Cops

I had never been so happy to be home. I walked in behind everyone and I just stood smiling in the entry way as I saw the brothers disperse into the house. Angel went into the kitchen to get something to eat, Jack went upstairs and Bobby had disappeared before I had even entered the house. I looked at all the décor Ma had around; she really hadn't changed a single thing.

"Hey Chels, can you –uh- come here a moment?" Bobby said from what sounded like the dining room.

"Ya." I said as I walked in through the living room, I froze. Bobby was sitting at the head of the table; he had taken his jacket off exposing his bloody shirt.

"Oh my god! What happened?" I asked as I walked over to his bloody side inspecting the damage.

"Will you stitch me up?" he asked.

"After you tell me what happened." I said. I looked over to the table, the first aid kit was probably the only new thing in this house as it laid there with new items. I put my hair up and took off my coat and scarf getting ready to play nurse.

"I will while you stitch me up- Oh my God Chelsea you've been shot!" he said getting up in an instant and grabbed my arm which was soaked in blood.

"Take off your shirt." he said as I looked up at him with an amused look as to say 'nice try'. "I'm serious." I grabbed the scissors on the table and handed them to him.

"Better yet why don't you cut the sleeve off?" I said with a smirk as he rolled his eyes. He took the scissors from me and began to cut the sleeve off. I looked down at the wound on my upper shoulder, the blood had begun to clot and there was hardly any pain.

"Eh, it's just a graze I think I'll live." I said with a smirk. "You on the other hand, have to take off your shirt."

"Why?"

"Because I said so and I'm the one who knows more about medical stuff so I'm in charge." I said with a smile of triumph.

"OK." he said as he took off his shirt and winced once or twice. He had been working out, he saw me checking out his body and smirked as I ignored him and inspected his arm. It had a bunch of puncture holes.

"Were you attacked by a dog?" I asked as I sat down in the seat next to him.

"Ya, the guy we got the information from had two dogs. He let them loose on me." he said as I tried to hide a laugh.

"You think it's funny?" he said as I grabbed some sterile items and started to wipe the dried blood away.

"No, you think you act all tough and what not, and a dog took you down." I said with a smile, pushing Bobby's buttons.

"There were two. AH!" he said as I put the alcohol against his wounds.

"I think we should just wrap it in gauze tonight and see how it looks in the morning. No need to use stitches if you don't have too." I said with a smile.

"Fine, so much for nurse play." He said with fake sadness in his voice. I wrapped his arm in gauze.

"You sleep well princess." I said as I got up and threw away the garbage I had created.

"What about your arm?" he asked as he stood up and followed me into the kitchen.

"I'll wrap it before I go to bed." I said as he walked right up to me.

"Let me do it. You never could do it for yourself." He said lightly grabbed my arm he could wrap it. H_e already planned on doing this. He brought in the freaking gauze. _"There." He said as he finished.

"Thanks." I said as we stood their awkwardly. "Well good night." I tried to walk away but he grabbed my good arm, pulled me back to him and into a kiss. At first I didn't know what to do, I was in shock, but after a couple minutes I reluctantly kissed back. He deepened the kiss as he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me over to the counters and pulled me up so I was sitting on it.

"Watch your arm." I muttered against his lips as he grunted in response and continued to kiss me.

"OH ANGEL. OH OH OH." Both of us froze at the sound of Sofi's cries. We stared at each other for a moment.

"Talk about mood killers." I said as he smirked at me. That moment I had realized the entirety of what I had done.

"Good night." He said as he pecked my lips and walked off to his room upstairs. I turned off all the lights and laid down on the couch staring at the ceiling.

_What the hell was that Chelsea? Making out with Bobby?! What in Christ's name are you doing? You two have done nothing but bicker and rehash old memories, good and bad. _

_But the letter from Ma, and the truths behind it. _

_Doesn't matter Chels, he broke your heart, don't go back to that. _

_Oh boo what do you know? _

_A hell of a lot more than you. You wouldn't even go sit at your place at your mother's funeral because of him. What makes you think he's changed at all from those years ago? _

_So what if he hasn't? What's your damned point?_

_He'll break your heart again and you know it. _

_Oh fuck off. _

"My god, I really am crazy." I said at my argument with myself. I curled to my side that wasn't hurt and closed my eyes preparing for what tomorrow would bring.

…

"Chels. Chels wake up." I felt someone shaking my shoulder.

"No." I responded and tried to turn over but the person wouldn't let me.

"Come on Chels. I bled through the gauze and ruined the bed upstairs." He said as I opened my eyes to Bobby and groaned.

"I hate you." I said as I sat up.

"Still not a morning person." He said with a smile as he walked back into the dining room, where the first aid kit still was from last night. I reluctantly followed him and glanced in the kitchen, Sofi was in there making food?

"Did I die last night?" I asked, Bobby chuckled as he glanced into the kitchen.

"Maybe she finally found her true calling from god last night while Angel pile drove her into oblivion."

"Shut up Bobby!" she screamed from the kitchen.

"Alright let's see the damage today." I said as he took off his shirt. I restrained from checking out his body again and looked at his arm.

"Well, the clotting that your body did last night was obviously undone. I guess we are going to have to stitch you up." I said as I got out the alcohol and put it on a cotton ball and began to clean the wounds.

"Ah! Goddamn it!" he yelled as the alcohol burned.

"You're such a pussy Bobby." Sofi said from the kitchen, I started to hide a snicker.

"How's your arm?" he asked staring at my cut up shirt. I glanced down at it there was blood soaking through.

"Looks like I'll need some stiches too." I said with a frown as I grabbed the needle and thread and began stitching up the worst bite holes.

"You want help stitching that up?" he asked me nodding towards my arm.

"Ya probably. You offering?" I asked looking at his arm then to him when he hadn't answered.

"Maybe." he said with that mischief look in his eye. Last night came rushing back as he leaned in again to kiss me. My mind began to yell at me as our lips touched. He tried to deepen the kiss when we heard Angel's voice.

"Hey, y'all! Police in the house." Angel said. We instantly separated looking at each other in shock.

"Wrap your arm up with this gauze!" I said throwing the gauze to him. "Sofi get something to cover his arm up! Try not to tear the stiches I've already done." I cleaned up as much as I could, throwing all the medical supplies in the box. I grabbed the whole box leaving the garbage for someone else to throw away and ran up the stairs as the door opened letting the officers in. I could hear Angel talking to the officers, one sounded like Green. _Perfect!_ I walked into Jack as he walked out of his room, forcing him to go back into his room.

"What?" he said as I stood in front of him.

"Cops, I think Green. Do you have a shirt I can borrow?" I asked as his attention went to my arm.

"Jesus Chels, you've been shot!" he said a little too loud.

"Shh! Jackie, I know it's just a graze, I need to cover it up until they leave." I said and put the medical supplies down.

"Yeah, OK" he said and grabbed a plain black shirt and threw it to me.

"Thanks Jackie." I said and kissed his cheek. I grabbed the medical supplies and I walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I looked like shit to say the least. Sweat, blood, and tears were everywhere on me. I splashed my face with water and tried to get as much blood off my arm as possible. I redid my hair from last night and threw Jack's shirt on. With one final look I made my way downstairs.

"Try from your thick skull." Fowlers voiced echoed through the house as I stood on the last stair. "Forensics took it off a pair of contract killers we found dead this morning." I snuck in behind Jack and Sofi.

"Fishing for a confession from a phony hair, huh?" Bobby said, I smiled the _oldest trick in the book_. "That's an old one boys. Come on Green." Green laughed at Bobby in front of him who was wearing a pink bathrobe. I looked at Sofi, was that really all she could find? "You know when I'll know you got my hair off a dead body, right? When I hear the jailhouse doors slam behind me girls." Bobby and Angel sat down on the couch looking up at the two officers.

"Okay then, you tell me what they told you. You think that these thugs were hired to kill Evelyn, is that it?" Green said he was a smart man.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Green." Bobby said playing it cool.

"Wait, Green, how do you go from petty thug to contract killer? And if they were professional killers, like you say, they'd never told us who they was working with anyway. Even if they got one hell of an ass whupping." Angel said as Fowler laughed drawing the attention to him.

"You think you're pretty cute, don't you? He does." Fowler said. _God this guy got on my nerves._ "Everybody's a smart guy until I bust them in the mouth." Fowler walked toward Angel in haste; Jack, Sofi and I walked into his path as Angel stood up. I was sandwiched between the two men staring each other down. Green stood for a second not sure if he should intervene.

"Green, get your pet detective on a fucking leash before he gets hurt." I said with menace in my voice as I glared up at Fowler with Angel behind me. Green shoved Fowler away from Angel and I. Before he left he turned back to the couch and looked at Bobby.

"Look Bobby, if you got something, you give it to me. And if it's something vital, we will run with this. But don't you try and take on Detroit by your damn self. You keep knocking on the devils door long enough, and sooner or later somebody gonna answer you." Green said. That was a true statement, but Bobby wasn't alone in this.


	13. Love?

After Fowler and Green left we all stood there.

"Well that was fun." I said breaking the silence. Sofi and Angel went in the other room, Jack went back up to his room, leaving Bobby and I there. I looked down and noticed his arm was bleeding.

"Don't tell me you already tore the stitches out?" I asked with an exhausted look on my face.

"Afraid so." he said with a smirk.

"Let me go got the med stuff in the bathroom." I said and turned and ran up the stairs.

"So." Jack said as I walked passed his room. I grabbed the medical supplies and walked to his door.

"So, what?" I asked as I cradled the supplies in my hands.

"You and Bobby." he said with a disapproving tone.

"Jackie not now." I pleaded.

"When then Chels?" he said getting off his bed, I was taken aback at the sudden anger. "He hasn't changed, he never will. Why can't you see that?"

"You don't think I can't see that Jackie? I argued with myself last night for who knows how long about this subject. I don't know what's going to happen and at this point I don't really care." I said as I looked at the youngest Mercer. "You wouldn't understand fairy ok?"

"No I understand." he said calming down and sitting on his bed. I walked into the room and sat next to him, placing the medical box by me, sensing the sudden change of emotion.

"Two summers ago I fell in love with this girl. She was everything to me. She was perfect. We were together for 6 months. I caught her sleeping with our drummer." he said with a sigh. "I understand your love for him, I just don't want you to." _Jackie was trying to protect me from myself_. I smiled at his touching thoughts.

"Oh Jackie." I said grabbing him and pulling him into a hug. "I love you, but you know you can't protect me from me. You can from everyone and everything else but not from me." I let him out of the hug. "But it means a lot to me, to show me how much you do care about me, to try to protect me." We sat there in silence for a moment.

"I love you too Chels." he said. "Thanks for listening." I smiled at him.

"Anytime Jackie, I will always be here for you." I said.

"And I will always be here for you. Even for all of yours and Bobby stories and drama. I'll listen to you." he said as we hugged again. I made my way down the stairs to re-patch Bobby up.

...

We sat in silence as I stitched him up, not really knowing what to talk about. We had made out twice in not even 15 hours and been questioned by the police for something we actually did. _Where does one go from here?_

"All done, I'm next." I said as I took Jack's shirt off not wanting to rip it. I sat there in my black lace bra as I undid the gauze from last night and turned so Bobby could get to my arm easier. He sat there and stared at me, not moving or looking like he had the intention to move.

"Bobby?" I said amused.

"Yeah." He said staring at my body.

"Stitch my arm up." I said trying not to laugh.

"You've been working out." he said as he mindlessly grabbed the alcohol and cotton balls.

"Yes, Yes I have. And so have you." I said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Yeah." he said as he put the alcohol soaked cotton ball against the wound.

"Shit" I said as it burned, he dabbed the wound.

"So, you noticed?" he said after a moment of silence.

"Noticed what?" I said not following.

"My body." He said egotistically with a smirk.

"Bobby my arm..." I said as I looked at my bullet wound.

"Why are you always this way?" he said frustrated.

"What way?" I asked innocently as he put the bloodied cotton ball down.

"You bring something up then drop it." He said becoming more frustrated.

"No you're that way." I said looking at him with confusion. "Bobby stitch up my arm before..."

"Before what?" he threatened.

"Just do it would ya?" I said frustrated with this petty excuse of an argument. We sat there in silence as he stitched my arm up. All of the tension could be cut with a knife, the sexual tension, the 'I want to kill you' tension, and the 'why can't you just realize it' tension.

"Thank you." I said and got up to leave, and he grabbed my good arm.

"What about gauze?" he asked.

"After my shower." I said as he still had my arm, I tried to pull it back. He pulled me down to his level and kissed me again. I wanted to roll my eyes but I couldn't. I sat down on his lap as he wrapped his arms around me_. How much more kissing could one do before it turned into something else?_ I heard someone walking into the room, I tried to pull away but Bobby wouldn't let me. I nibbled his lip knowing it would make him moan, as soon as he did I looked over to see Jack standing there with a smirk. I got up from Bobby's lap and walked out of the room.

"I'm going to take a shower." I said as I grabbed my bag I left in the living room and walked upstairs. I could hear both Bobby and Jack laugh as I got at the top of the stairs.

…...

I walked out dressed and ready for whatever was next as Jack walked up the stairs.

"Hey we're going to check out the shooters house." he said as he walked over into his room and grabbed his jacket.

"I'm coming." I said as I waited for him to grab his jacket.

"I know." he said as he passed me and stood at the stairs. His smile letting me know he was thinking in the gutter, I slapped him on the arm, as we walked down the stairs.

"It's either go with you or hear Angel and Sofi. I'm going with you." I said as he laughed.

"Good choice." he said as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

"She's so la vida loca." Bobby said.

"Man don't do that right now." Angel said almost pleading.

"Shut up Bobby!" Sofi said. She and Angel's words got jumbled into one as they yelled at Bobby. Bobby's voice soon got caught up in the mess. Jack and I stood there laughing again just enjoying the hilarity of the situation.

"I want a girlfriend like you." Bobby said, Jackie elbowed me as I slapped the back of his head.

"Can we go?" I said as Sofi started to talk to Angel again.

"You said this time was going to be different." she whined to Angel. Bobby looked up at us and rolled his eyes.

"Aye you're breaking mi corazon." Bobby said in a horrible accent as Jack and I laughed. "She's getting real comfortable here, huh? What are you doing? I thought you was a macho man. A tough guy. You know it's a real shame that little Jackie and Chels are the only ones down to ride. Let's go guys." Bobby said as Jack went and stood in front of Angel with a smug smile on his face.

"Say goodbye to your big sister Jackie let's go!" Bobby said as I just stood there and laughed.

"You gonna leave me too?" Angel said to me as I nodded. "I just need 15 minutes, man."

"I ain't staying here to hear you two. Not again." I said shuddering at the thought.

"She's addicted to what Angel's dick did." Jackie said as Bobby and I laughed. We all walked out into the biting cold air.


	14. Fights and Upset Emotions

We walked into the shooters dark and dreary apartment.

"Check everything. There has got to be some shit around here that ties these guys to someone else." Bobby said as we began to look. I walked into a room, a bedroom and started to look around as I faintly heard Bobby follow me.

"You know there are other rooms to be checked." I said as I looked around the room.

"Yeah but I want to be in here." He said childishly as I rolled my eyes. I turned to look in some drawers as I tripped on one of many piles of clothes lying on the ground. I fell into the bed and hit the ground shortly after.

"Whoa, you alright?" Bobby asked coming to my rescue, trying to hide his amusement and failing terribly.

"I just tripped Bobby. Of course I'm-" I said as I sat on the ground, something black under the mattress catching my eye. Bobby followed my line of vision and walked over and helped me up, together we moved the mattress from the frame of the bed.

"Holy shit." I said we stood in front of a bunch of guns.

"Yeah we're taking all of these." he said as he picked up one of the shotguns. He looked at it for a moment impressed. I grabbed a workout duffle bag from the corner and threw it to Bobby as we placed all the guns into the small bag. He zipped it up and we walked to where Jack was.

"You dicking around in here?" Bobby said.

"You find anything Jackie?" I said as Jack looked over his shoulder at me with his smirk as he held up a camera.

"A camera." he said.

"Come on." Bobby said and we left the place.

…...

We went back home to inspect our findings.

"SIG Sauer .45 auto." Bobby said inspecting one of the guns

"That'll blow your back out." I said, holding a different gun. "Nine millimeter Beretta. My favorite."

"Oh ya? Look at this Beretta, babe." Bobby said as I froze for a second at his comment, _When did I become babe?_ "Its triple action three bullets at once." I whistled figuring ignoring the babe remark would be easier than drawing attention to it. "They say dead men tell no tales, but they sure do leave important shit lying around." Bobby pointed the gun to the person walking into the room, it was Jerry.

"Hey what in the hell y'all doing now?" he said to us seeing the table full of guns. I shrugged as Bobby lowered the weapon.

"Just getting a head start on next year's taxes Jerry." Bobby said amused with his own remark.

"Look how y'all doing to Mama's house!" Jerry said as he looked around the messy house. He walked back into the living room next to the couch. "Come on look at this table man. Come on."

"Hey you know what you're right. Hey Sofi, why don't you do me a favor and clean up some of this shit? Make yourself useful." Bobby yelled to Sofi who was in the kitchen again.

"Bobby stop waving that damn gun around before you get someone killed." I said, as Sofi threw a towel at him as I moved to miss it.

"You missed." Bobby taunted as Jerry walked back into the room.

"Hey Chels," Jack said next to me showing the camera to me there were pictures of ma.

"Where'd y'all get this?" Jerry said referring to all the guns.

"Our friend Stanley, the shooter" Bobby said as he looked at one of the guns more closely.

"Let me see that." Jerry said pointing at the camera. We handed it over as Bobby stood up and looked at the camera behind Jerry. Jack walked over and stood with his brothers.

"They were tracking mom." I said with a frown, still confused on why anyone would want to kill her.

"That's that guy. That's that lawyer guy. That shithead said he said he only met her once, Bobby." Jack said as a door slammed. _Angels home!_

"Where the hell you been? I've been trying to call you all day." Bobby said to Angel as he appeared at the doorway to the living room and dining room. I noticed Angel was glaring at Jerry with a look of betrayal, and mistrust.

"I was following up new leads." Angel said still staring Jerry down I glanced over to Jack as he shrugged.

"Yeah lets go. Jerry, you coming with us?" Bobby said as Jerry just stood there. "Don't you wanna find out who hired them?"

"Yeah don't you wanna find out who killed mom?" Angel said as I walked over to Angel.

"Of course I do man." Jerry said I felt like something was off, it made me uneasy.

"Let's go and stop bullshitting." Bobby said as he and Jack exited the room. I walked around the table and followed.

"Ya, somebody gotta look after y'all clowns." Jerry said from behind me.

"Oh so now you calling us clowns?" Angel said with venom.

"I call it like I see it." Jerry said as Sofi and Angel started to argue yet again as we all left, ignoring it, but he followed us out the door.

…...

Bobby busted a window on the door of the lawyer's house, opened it and let himself inside.

"Ooh an attack dog! Come here poochie. You don't want to bite me don't cha? " Bobby said, picking up a small dog.

"Careful with that mutt. I don't want to stitch you up again." I joked.

"Did you hear what she called you?" Bobby said to the dog as we walked into the house looking for anything that we thought could help us.

"Hey guys." Jack said as he sat down at a computer. We all walked around behind Jack and looked at the computer, Bobby still holding the dog petting it occasionally. "Hey Bobby check this out. I found Bradford's calendar. You think E.M. Stands for Evelyn Mercer do you?" he asked as we crowded around him.

"You're good at this Jackie" I said impressed as he flawlessly racked his fingers across the keyboard.

"The night she died. Why would anyone want to meet with their lawyer at eight o clock at night?" Angel said.

"Um..." I started about to say something but was interrupted.

"ANGEL!" Sofi screamed from outside.

"Nice, your girlfriends here." Bobby said annoyed putting the dog down. "Go shut her up!"

"We're going to get caught." I said.

"Angel! Angel! Come out here!" She yelled followed by something in Spanish.

"Y'all come out there with me this bitch is crazy." Angel said nervously, we all followed.

"People there are robbers in the house!" she yelled as we walked outside to shut her up. A car pulled into the driveway as soon as we had made it to the screaming woman, the lawyer had arrived home. The group spilt up, Bobby walked over and confronted the lawyer, Jerry reluctantly followed as Angel, Jack and I walked over to Sofi. Angel and Jack tried to calm down Sofi and eventually gave up and went over to Bobby leaving me alone with Sofi. She continued screaming at Angel, I turned to her after the shock of having to deal with this mess.

"Sofi, you can't do shit like this. It fucking ridiculous!" I said.

"He said things would be different." She whined to me, striking a cord in myself control.

"Sofi, his mother died, she was murdered. What the fuck would you do if you were in his position!? You would try to find out her killer! What if Angel was the one who died? Huh? You would go and find the person who did it. So lay the fuck off!" I yelled at her, finally at my snapping point. She looked at me dumbfounded for a moment, and then her face turned to rage as she slapped me across the face.

"Oh no, you did not just slap me!" I said as touched my face. I threw back my arm and decked her square in the face, within seconds it turned into a full on cat fight. I felt someone wrap their arms around me, I froze and instinctively turned and punched the person that had grabbed me. Once I realized who it was I froze and tried not to laugh as Bobby held the side of his face.

"See Jackie I told you she would do that!" he said.

"Sorry Bobby." I said as I glanced back to Sofi who had been taken away from the fight in Angel's arms. I growled at her not seeing enough damage to her face, I charged in her direction, Bobby grabbed my arm before I got too far.

"Keep that la vida loca on a leash!" Bobby said to Angel as Sofi responded in a series of Spanish phrases and curses. I wiped the blood off of my face, knowing this wasn't the first or the last time Sofi would draw my blood.

"You OK?" Bobby asked as he glanced at my hands and face.

"Ya, I don't know about her though. I did give her some nasty hits." I said as Bobby walked with me to his car.

"She'll be fine." Bobby said.

"How's your face?" I asked as I saw the beginning of a bruise.

"On fire! Pretty sure it's going to leave a nice shiner tomorrow."

"You'll live." I said mocking him with a smile and got into the back of his car with Jack close behind as well as Jerry. We all sat in the car together for a moment before Bobby started it up and started to on our journey home.

"Hey Chels, did you know Ma was seeing him?" Bobby asked with a look of confusion on his face as he glanced at me in the mirror.

"Not him, but I knew she was seeing someone." I said as we continued on home.


	15. Lovers and Dreams

When we walked into the house we were greeted with the sounds of Angel and Sofi making up upstairs. I walked straight into the kitchen for some ice for my split lip and possible black eye, Bobby followed after me, Jack ran up the stairs and Jerry went home. I sat on the counter pressing the ice pack I had poorly made as Bobby got some frozen peas out of the freezer and leaned against the wall and stared at me.

"I am kinda sorry I smacked you." I said smiling from my perch.

"You punched me, you didn't smack me." he said as he winced at the ice touching his bruised skin. After a couple moments of silence and staring at each other I finally spoke up.

"So, what now?" I asked as I adjusted the ice pack to my sore cheek.

"With Ma?" he asked as I nodded. "I don't know, I think we hit a dead end."

"I think Angel knows something." I said before I could catch myself.

"What do you mean?" he said suddenly curious.

"I think he has a lead, he's just waiting for the opportune moment to tell us." I said as Bobby shook his head and grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

"Want one?" he asked I shrugged.

"Why not?" I said as he walked over and handed me a beer. He stood next to me as we drank our beer in silence. After the beer had hit my system, I struggled to keep control of my thoughts.

"When did I become babe again?" I blurted out shocked at myself.

"I never called you babe." He stated as he looked at me confused.

"Yeah you did, we were talking about the triple action Beretta." I said accepting my impending doom of talking about relationship problems again.

"Seems like you remember it more than I do, meaning you liked it." He teased as I rolled my eyes.

"Bobby..." I began as he put his beer down and grabbed mine. I was shocked into silence at what was going on, without a word he pressed his lips to mine.

"Really?" I mumbled as I tried to pull away.

"Shut it." He demanded and continued to kiss me as he pulled me off of the counter.

"We really going to do this?" I asked.

"What did I say?" he said sternly but playfully. I slammed my lips into his then pulled away and walked toward the stairs. When I didn't hear him behind me I looked down the hall.

"You better bring those beers and some new ones." I said. I could practically hear his smile as he grabbed the beers off the counter and took a couple more out of the fridge. We walked into the room he was in, he put down the beers on the table he kissed me. We started slowly teasing each other to the bed until he got frustrated and pinned me down.

….

With an exhale of breath I crashed to the bed trying to catch my breath with Bobby right next to me doing the same. It felt good to be with Bobby again but very odd, I wasn't really sure what I was feeling. We both looked at each other at the same time and let out a laugh on the fact we were still trying to catch our breath.

"Cig?" he asked as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of thin air.

"I'll take a couple hits off yours." I said as I grabbed our beers.

We laid there drinking beer and smoking the cigarette not really saying much just enjoying the moment. Within a half an hour we were both asleep next to each other slowly getting closer and closer together as the night went on.

"_I want to go to prom!" Camille said to Jerry._

"_Do you realize how much shit I'm going to get from my brothers?" Jerry said._

"_We can talk Chels into going, she can talk Bobby into it, and maybe we can get Angel and Sofi to go to..."Camille said trying to convince her boyfriend. _

"_Baby, it's not going to work." Jerry said shaking his head. _

"_He's right Camille! I ain't going to prom!" I said from the other room hearing their entire conversation. _

"_But Chels you'll regret it if you don't!" Camille said as she walked into the room. _

"_What about prom?" Sofi asked in butchered English following behind Camille. _

"_Nothing." I said trying to brush off the whole subject. _

"_I want to go!" Sofi said._

"_I do too! I want everyone to go." Camille said looking over at me with an innocent smile. _

_3 miserable fucking hours later_

"_FINE! I'll go but only if I can talk Bobby into it." I surrendered knowing Bobby would never go with me to prom. They let out high pitched girlish screams and leaped into my arms. _

"_We obviously missed something." Bobby said as he walked into the house with Angel, Jerry and Jack following behind him. _

"_I'm sorry baby." I said as I walked over to him and gave him a peck on the lips. _

"_What?" he said concerned. _

"_They want us to all go to prom!" I said wincing at his impending response. _

"_No, no fucking way." he said automatically, I mouth a thank you before acting like I was trying. _

"_I've been arguing it for the last 3 hours baby. Trust me let's just go." I said the more I tried to fight not wanting to go the more it started to fester in my mind. _

"_I don't dance." He stated. _

"_I don't either." I said as I looked at my watch. "I have to get home and check on my mom." I pecked his lips and started towards the door. _

"_We ain't going!" he yelled after me as I waved my hand in response. _

…_..._

_3 weeks later._

"_And smile!" The camera man said as he took the picture, blinding us with the flash. _

_All of us stood there posing for the camera. Bobby, Angel, Jerry and I had the same sad expression on our faces as Sofi and Camille smiled as wide as they could. It was Bobby's and Jerry's senior prom, everyone else's junior prom. _

_We walked away from the photo area and walked into the dance area. The beat of terrible music blasted through the speakers of the dimly lit room. We walked over to the punch and food tables. _

_The usual dingy boys stood in suits, Camille wearing a blue low cut long slinky dress, Sofi wearing a green slinky dress with a slit going up the front to her upper thigh, low cut in the front and the back, it flowed all the way to her ankles and I wearing a red tube top dress, that ruffles to the top of my knees. Only Sofi and Camille had imagined us here, the rest of us wouldn't have ever dreamed of it. A pop upbeat song came on Sofi and Camille dragged their boyfriends to the dance floor. Bobby looked over at me as I shook my head. _

"_Should I spike the punch?" Bobby asked me as he poured some punch in a cup. _

"_Do you have the alcohol?" I asked as he handed me the punch. _

"_Maybe." He said with a mysterious smirk. _

"_I dunno. If you feel like wasting it on these people then yeah go for it." I said with a smile._

"_Good point." He said nodding his head. We walked around and eventually found an area by the wall and sat down on the floor. Bobby pulled out a flask from his jacket and spiked our drinks. We talked for a good 2 hours, about everything, about our future, his brothers, our past, everything. Angel and Sofi had joined us after an hour of dancing._

"_Hey guys we're heading out." Jerry said as he walked up to us with Camille hugging his body._

_We all nodded and said various goodbyes we looked around the room and noticed everyone had started to leave. Soon only Angel, Sofi, Bobby and I were sitting there. Sofi sat in Angel's lap and whispered to each other as they made out. Bobby sat next to me looking like a kicked puppy, feeling a little rambunctious I crawled over to him and sat in his lap straddling him._

"_What's wrong baby?" I asked as I tried to cheer him up. _

"_Nothing" he said not even looking at me. _

"_Bobby?" I said sternly. _

"_I'm just bored." He said almost in a whining tone. _

"_Well let's do something." I said letting the alcohol speak for me. _

"_Like?" he said as I smirked at him grinding my hips into his. He smirked at me in return knowing where I was going with this. _

"_Hey guys" Angel said interrupting Bobby's and my silent conversation. "I found a joint." Bobby and I snapped our attention over to Angel who was holding up a joint. Kissed Bobby, got up and grabbed the joint from Angel and ran off. _

"_Hey that's mine!" Angel yelled after me. I could hear footsteps behind me as I looked around for somewhere to hide. _

"_It's mine now." I yelled back. I felt someone collide behind me and pushed me towards the right; I turned and saw Bobby standing directly behind me. I pulled him with me into the janitor's closet as we found a light and stood facing each other. _

"_You sure baby?" he said looking at the joint. _

"_Hell ya!" I said as he pulled out a lighter and lit the joint, taking a hit. He stood letting the joint hang from his mouth, I grabbed it from his mouth and took a hit from it as I heard him slowly growl. We placed the joint on an abandoned shelf. He smirked as he picked me up and pressed me against the wall kissing me. _


	16. Damn it Jerry

I woke up alone with the sun seeping in through the window. It was nice sleeping in a bed for the first time in a couple days. I glanced over at the clock and saw it was 2 in the afternoon. Before I could get up Bobby walked into the bedroom putting his jacket on.

"Come on babe, you were right Angel has a lead we're going to check it out." he said sitting on the bed to put his shoes on.

"Told ya so." I said as I stood up and walked towards the door. Bobby grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him, he kissed me before he let me go. I walked down the stairs and into the living room to see Jack sitting on the couch, smirking at me as I grabbed some clothes from my bag.

"Don't say a word you little shit." I said as he began to laugh uncontrollably. I walked back upstairs and into the bathroom and took a shower.

…...

I was standing outside of the bathroom completely ready to go within 15 minutes.

"Where we goin?" I asked as I walked down the stairs seeing Jack waiting at the door.

"We're going to be visiting Councilman Douglas." Bobby answered in the small hall to the kitchen. I stood in front of Jack as everyone put on the necessary items to face the Detroit cold.

"Sweet lets go. Where's Angel?" I asked.

"Following his leads..." Jack said in a disturbed tone. I shook my head in disbelief remembering the way Angel was acting around Jerry yesterday.

…...

We walked through the car garage until Bobby found the councilman's car. Bobby busted the back window in, Jack and I doused the entire car inside and out with gasoline. We waited around a pillar for him to come around, after about 30 minutes we saw what I assumed was him walking towards the car.

"Councilman Douglas." Bobby said as he rounded the corner, once the man turned around acknowledging it was him he continued. "Sorry to startle you. My name is Bobby Mercer. I believe you know my brother Jeremiah? Apparently you were the one who got his business shut down, am I right?" Jack and I stood behind Bobby.

"This is not the proper venue for an appeal." Councilman Douglas said in a business tone.

"We aren't really concerned with that councilman." I said standing next to Bobby. All three of us were now in front of him blocking him to his car.

"I heard my brother got mixed up with some hoodlums. Do you know what I am talking about?" Bobby said.

"I can't help you. Excuse me." Councilman Douglas said as he moved between the three of us. We turned and watched him get into his car, he was sniffing around as we walked over.

"Councilman! I'm gonna light your ass on fire! All I wanted was a name. You're gonna make me turn your ass into the black ginger bread man now. Sorry, and I'll have my little brother here smoke your burning dick!" Bobby said as I doused the car again with gas. Bobby took Jacks cigarette out of his mouth and held it as proof he wasn't lying.

"Roll down the window." Bobby said.

"Victor, Victor Sweet." Councilman Douglas said as soon as the window rolled down enough.

"What about him?" I asked as he told us everything.

…...

We got a call from Angel telling us to meet us at the Playtime Bowling alley. We showed up about an hour after he had called, we parked and made our way to the door.

"What do you think he found?" Jack asked.

"I dunno but it's something big." Bobby said.

"How can you tell?" Jack asked.

"The sound of his voice. I know my brother." Bobby said as we walked into the bowling alley. It was considerably darker than it was outside; we waited a couple minutes for our eyes to adjust before we spotted Angel. We walked over to the bar where he was drinking a beer waiting for us.

"What's going on Angel?" Bobby asked.

"Was the councilman helpful?" Angel asked not even looking at us.

"Oh yeah, real public servant." I said as I ordered a beer.

"Remember that punk Victor Sweet?" Bobby asked.

"I remember a Malcolm Sweet." Angel said confused and finally looked over to Bobby.

"Victor was his nephew. Used to deliver things for his uncle, with a fire bomb of beatings. Remember Malcolm used to love to humiliate him all of the time." Bobby said.

"Yeah, I remember that dude." Angel said.

"Apparently little Victor got sick of all the ass whooping's, and took his uncle to the river. He owns the whole town now." Bobby said.

"No shit." Angel said surprised, after a couple of moments of struggling Angel continued. "Hey Bobby, uh, word around town is that Jerry owe a lot of people some money."

"What're you talking about?" I said.

"Recognize that dude over there? With the fat head?" Angel asked as we all looked to where he was pointing.

"Ya that's Evan Pierce." Bobby said. "He used to be alright. Him and Jer used to hang out in the Union days."

"He goes by Evan now. Working for a guy named Victor." Angel said as Bobby puzzled everything together.

"You guys are coming up with this pretty quick." Jack said as he took a sip of my beer.

"Ya we should have been cops." Bobby said with a smirk. "What are we doing here Angel?" Bobby was antsy, dancing around the area we were in wanting to leave.

"Holy shit!" Jack said as I snapped my attention where he was looking. I stood up in shock unable to say anything; Bobby stopped in his tracks and stared as Jerry gave Evan an envelope.

"I found out Jerry got a big insurance check from Ma's death." Angel explained as we all stood there in shock as Jerry walked out of the building.

"Forget Jerry, we will find him later." Bobby said as he walked over to Evan. We followed behind him nervous to see what was going to happen.

"Yo Vanda!" Bobby said as we confronted Evan.

"Merial we're leaving!" Evan said to his wife and kids. "Nice to see you boys. But we was just leaving'"

"You're goin' nowhere. What were you talkin' to my brother Jerry about?" Bobby said defensively.

"Nothin' just sayin' hello. Me and Jerry go way back from the union days. You know that Bobby." Evan explained.

"Angel tells me you one of Victor Sweets boys now. Runnin' shit like his uncle used to. Treating you like a house nigga." Bobby said getting cocky.

"What are you thinkin' Evan? The dudes a punk." I said looking at the man that I had met a dozen or so times.

"You been gone a long time, fellas. Times change." Evan said.

"What's in the envelope?" Bobby asked

"What envelope?" Evan said playing stupid.

"You wanna play that fuckin' game with me right now?" Bobby said dangerously we all moved subconsciously forward as Evan took a step back.

"Y'all gonna do this right here?" Evan said in disbelief.

"Right here. Right now." Bobby said.

"Give him the envelope and take a walk. NOW!" Angel yelled as Evan handed Angel the envelope.

"Go ahead Evan, take the kids home. We'll see your ass again real soon." I said.

"Let's go." Bobby said as we left to go see Jerry.

…...

We sat in front of Jerry's house.

"I swear to god, you get out of this car I will beat you myself." I said to Bobby, he was way too wound up and would probably kill Jerry if he saw him right now.

"Chels, do you know what this means?" he said shaking in anger. Angel and I had a more logical plan to have Jerry come over to the house tomorrow and simply ask him to explain.

"Really? That's what you're going to ask?" I said as Angel dialed Jerry. I leaned forward and whispered in Bobby's ear from the back seat. "Just calm down. We need to approach this in a humane way because he is your brother. If it was any other mother fucker on the street I'd say 'Go for it' but it's not. Okay baby?" He calmed down a little bit.

"Is he coming?" Bobby asked Angel when he got off the phone.

"Ya he's coming." he said.

"Good." Bobby said as he started the car and drove off to the house. We all solemnly walked into the house and said out goodnights. I walked into the living room and sat on the couch closing my eyes.

"What are you doing?" Bobby said from the stairs.

"Sitting." I said not even opening my eyes to look over at him.

"Get your ass upstairs." He said, I looked over at him quizzically as he walked up the stairs. I reluctantly followed knowing I would sleep better in the bed but something nagged in my gut, it was still weird with what Bobby and I had done. I walked into the dark room and took off my pants and laid down on the bed. Without saying a word Bobby crawled over to me and placed his arm under my head and placed the other across my hip. We both faded into a restless sleep.


	17. JACKIE!

I woke up and glanced over at the clock, the glowing red numbers blared back at me reading 5:38 am. I groaned in frustration, not getting any sleep at all during the night. I looked over at Bobby, his arm was still draped over my midsection. He always looked so peaceful when he slept, I gave him a sad smile as I wiggled out of his embrace and walked out of the room to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

When I got out I glanced back into the room and saw Bobby was still asleep. I walked down the stairs and saw Jack in the living room watching TV. Without a word I sat down next to him and stared blankly at the TV.

"I couldn't sleep." he said after a couple of minutes.

"Me neither."

"I just don't understand why he would do this." He said about Jerry.

"I don't know either Jackie. But I think there are more pieces to the puzzle."

"How do you figure?" he said looking over at me. I looked over at him and studied his face, he looked tired and worn out.

"Well, I don't think he had anything to do with Ma's murder, that's just not Jerry. We'll find out in a few hours though." I said reassuringly.

"Ya I guess so." he said as I got comfortable on the sofa.

"Try and get some sleep, ya fairy." I said smiling as he laughed a bit.

"I love ya Chels." He said as he laid his head on my shoulder.

"I love you too Jackie." I said with a smile. After a couple minutes he stirred next to me. I glanced over at him, his eyes were open. "Close em."

"I just can't get comfortable." He said sounding like a little kid again. "If you promise not to tell will you sing it?" My heart broke slightly as I fought back tears.

"Yeah." I choked out and began to hum the familiar tune. He hadn't asked me to sing to him for a while, probably at least 4 years.

_"Don't worry about a thing,_

_'Cause every little thing gonna be all right. _

_Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, _

_'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!" _

_Rise up this mornin', _

_Smiled with the risin' sun, _

_Three little birds _

_Pitch by my doorstep _

_Singin' sweet songs _

_Of melodies pure and true, _

_Sayin',_

…...

About 3 hours later everyone was awake and walking around with a certain sadness that hadn't been this prominent at Ma's funeral. Jack and I were still sitting in the living room as Angel paced back and forth trying to get rid of his nervous energy. We heard Jerry's car pull up into the drive way. Angel stopped moving and stood waiting for his brother to walk into the room. We all held our breath as time ticked on.

"What?" Jerry asked as he walked in and saw Angel standing glaring and Jack and I on the couch.

"You know what you did." Angel said showing him the envelope with the money.

"No! You don't know what you're fuckin' with! Where's Bobby?" Jerry said panicked as Bobby slammed his fist into his face letting his presence known. I cringed knowing Bobby was going to unhinge. He hadn't said a word to anyone all morning, just walked around in a pissed off mood. Sofi ran into the room at the commotion. Jack and I stood up and walked over as Bobby continued to punch his brother.

"Huh Jerry? What are you hiding? If I find out you had anything to do with Ma's murder. I swear to god Jerry. I'm going to kill you right here and now!" Bobby yelled standing over Jerry, Angel was close behind. Jack and I stood there not sure what we could do other than watch and jump in if it got out of hand.

"No Bobby No!" Sofi said from the doorway at the mention of killing him.

"Angel's going to ask you some questions, and brother I shit you not, the time for lying is over." Bobby warned.

"I know your lying about your business, and we know you got mixed up with some gangsters." Angel said as calmly as he could.

"Hold on man." Jerry said as he tried to get up.

"Stay Down!" Bobby said as he kicked Jerry back down on the ground.

"Y'all think I had something to do with Mom getting killed?" Jerry yelled as he jumped up and hit Bobby in the face when he went after him again.

"You got a check for $400.00 and you just so happened to forget to mention from Ma's life insurance." Angel said as Jackie sat back down on the couch.

"She took out the policy for the girls' man! That ain't have nothing to do with that come on man." Jerry said.

"You made the payments!" Jack said.

"Good timing Jerry. Just when it seems like all is lost for you, Ma get shot by some gangsters and now you hit the fucking lottery." Bobby said.

"Bobby!" I said shocked at his outburst. I didn't know what Jerry had done but I knew he would never do anything to intentionally hurt any of his family…. Right?

"Y'all trippin' cause I made insurance payments? WHAT!" Jerry yelled and stood up.

"I paid all her bills!" he said as he shoved Bobby when he went to hit him. Bobby collided into me knocking me down as Jerry hit Angel in the face. I stood up without saying anything as everyone glared at Jerry and he glared right back.

"Where the fuck were you all? Huh? How many years did I have to take care of her my goddamned self? I mean Chelsea helped but where the fuck were you all? You were all around doin' nothing! Bull shitting! And you gonna tell me I killed her?! Come on man!" Jerry said.

"So why would you pay a killer like Sweet? And what the fuck did he do for you Jerry?!" Angel asked getting in Jerry's face. I stood back, Bobby took a couple steps back too, not sure what was going to go down.

"What did he do for me? He killed my fucking life! I put everything in that project! I bet it all trying to make something up for myself! Trying to make the shit work! Damn things comin tryin' to take a piece." Jerry said settling down a bit.

"You paid him Jerry. You got in bed with him didn't you? " Bobby said.

"No, no, no, no! I didn't pay him that's how they fucking shut me down!" Jerry said.

"Wait, I thought the city cut you off Jerry." Jack said.

"Douglas? Come on man! This is Detroit! Sweet owes Douglas! He ain't nothing but a gangster in a suit!" Jerry said as someone knocked on the door. I assumed we would all ignore it but I saw Jack out of the corner of my eye move towards the door. A bad feeling in the pit of my stomach began to bloom and I suddenly felt like something was wrong. I fixed all of my attention on Jack as everyone else continued to talk. I watched Jack open the door and say something as he ran out.

"Shit." I muttered as I pushed past Bobby and Angel who didn't seem to notice anything else but their conversation. I bolted out the door towards Jack but suddenly froze like an invisible wall was stopping me.

"JACK!" I screamed as the guy he was running after pulled out a gun. The blood ran out of my face and I felt Goosebumps run up and down my spine as a shot rang out. Then as if by magic the invisible wall disappeared and I ran to Jack as he fell to the ground.

"JACK! CHELSEA!" I heard Bobby scream behind me. I ignored him as I reached Jack and pulled him over to the nearest snow bank. As I dragged Jack I vaguely noticed a van pull up and began shooting at us. I suddenly felt a burning sensation in my leg that was begging me to sit down. After I hid Jack and me behind a pole and the snow bank I rested Jack's head in my lap and applied pressure to his shoulder wound. I could hear the continuation of the gun fight around me but I could only look at Jack. I felt hot tears begin to pour down my face as he looked up at me crying in pain and fear.

"Come on Jackie, look at me baby." I said as he tried to see what was going on around him.

"Chelsea." He choked out making me cry even harder.

"Come on Jackie boy, talk to me." I said again trying to keep him conscious.

"I think I'm hit." he said with a smirk, I let out a forced laugh and a weak smile as he shuddered from shock.

"Tryin' to be a smart ass still." I said shaking my head as his smirk faded and started coughing up blood. "Shit. BOBBY!" I screamed not knowing what else to do.

"CHELSEA!" Bobby screamed from somewhere. Jack looked around for a minute and started screaming for Bobby as well. I started to cry even harder seeing Jack screaming for his older brother. I looked up and saw one of the shooters making his way to us.

"BOBBY!" I screamed again with more panic. I held onto Jack and searched for a weapon, anything really to throw at the man, there was nothing. The man reached us and grabbed my arm violently.

"Come here, you little bitch. You were supposed to die a while ago." he said as he forced me away from Jack.

"CHELSEA!" Jack said as he looked at me in panic. Seeing the panic in Jack's face sent a surge of energy from my body. I began hitting, kicking and screaming violently, a dull pain let itself known from my leg.

"BOBBY!" Jack yelled, realizing I wasn't able to defend myself as well as I normally could. The shooter turned to Jack and started to shoot at him to shut him up. I screamed again and began hitting, kicking and screaming. I managed to hit the shooters knee as he collapsed to the ground throwing me with him. I tried to get up to my feet and collapsed back to the ground. I stood up on my good leg now realizing the other had at least 2 visible bullet holes in it. I turned to the shooter as he tried to get up off the ground. I violently jumped onto the guy throwing punches until he went limp beneath me. I crawled over and grabbed his gun that he had dropped when he fell the first time. I limped back up onto my good leg. Jack was yelling for Bobby but much weaker than he had before. I attempted to shoot one of the shooters as the gun clicked empty.

"Damn." I muttered as the other shooters noticed me standing there with the empty gun. I looked behind them and saw Bobby. I stayed where I was until I saw Bobby jump with a brick in his hand. The moment when I knew all the attention was on Bobby I limped over to Jack and stayed with him cradling his head back into my lap. Blood, spit and tears were everywhere.

"Jackie, hold on baby." I said as I felt around for my phone to call an ambulance. "Fuck!" I screamed when I realized it was still in the house. "Look at me Jackie." He looked up at me with fear, panic and pain in his eyes. I gave a weak smile and ran my hand through his hair. A click behind me made me stiffen. I glanced around to see what everyone else was up to, Bobby was still beating on the guy and everyone else was still in the house. I slowly turned to the guy behind me who was holding the gun to my head. I glanced up to see Angel jump from the house to the guy with the gun.

"Chels?" Jackie whispered as I whipped my head back to him and gave him all my attention.

"I'm here for ya, Jackie. I'm here." I said as I ran my fingers through his hair again.

"I love you, Chelsea bear." he said as he gave a weak smile. I froze when he said his old nickname for me, he was saying goodbye.

"Don't you say goodbye Jack, don't you dare." I threatened him as more tears began to fall. His eyes were becoming glassier and his skin was as white as the snow.

"I love you Jackie... with all my heart." I whispered to him, he gave me another weak smile. I felt a hand on my shoulder, I jumped in shock and looked up it was Angel. I watched as Bobby ran over minutes later both of them moving in front of me so they could see their brother and talk to him.

"Jack, Jack look at me." Bobby said as he knelt in front of Jack, Angel on his other side. "Jack you're going to be alright hold on. WE NEED AN AMBULENCE!"

"SOMEBODY HELP! CALL 911!" Angel said panicked, Jerry walked over and stood in between his brothers and stared at the youngest on the ground.

"Jack, Jack, Jack!" Bobby yelled, Jack spit up more blood. I felt all the blood drain from my face and I suddenly felt sick. "Jack, please common man."

"I'm calling, I'm calling." I heard Sofi say in the distance, her words were muted. _Why is she whispering?_

"Come on Jack you gotta breath." Bobby whispered. "Don't you die on me you little fairy. Common Jack! Please you got to fucking breath." Bobby moved closer to Jack moving his head off my lap and cradling it in his hands. I moved so I wasn't in an awkward position anymore and to hopefully make the dizziness and nausea I was feeling go away. I glanced down at my leg, blood was still slowly pooling out of it making my symptoms triple. I glanced over at Jack as his head went limp, Jack was dead. I reached over and put a hand on Bobby's who was still holding Jack's head.

"Jack, Jack, Jack, common, Jack common." he whispered as the last words came out in sobs. _Why is everyone _whispering? This was not a time to whisper. I scooted closer to Bobby and placed my hand on his face, ignoring the pain and sickness I felt. He looked up to me at my touch; I gave him a sorrowful look knowing words would be mute at this point. In the far off distance sirens could be heard as Bobby's face went from pain to rage as he stood up.

"Bobby." I said in between a sob, shocked at the sound of my own voice and how weak it sounded. Bobby ignored me and walked around to a van that had Jerry's van crashed into it.

"Chelsea I think you need to lie down." Jerry said his voice sounding distorted and quiet. I shrugged as my world spun around me.

"Oh My God!" Jerry said as he stared down at my leg and stumbled to my side. He forced me to lay down in the snow next to Jack, I stared up at the sky as Angel and Jerry asked me questions about how many times I was shot. I didn't answer content with staring at the white clouds as they sailed by. I faintly heard a gunshot echo through the neighborhood.

"Chelsea! Chelsea!" I heard Bobby's distorted voice as he interrupted my view of the sky. I smiled at him as my vision faded to black.


	18. Coma

_I had gotten to know the Mercer boys pretty well. It had been a couple of months after my run in with them in the street playing hockey. It was Valentine's Day and I wanted to do something for all the boys but especially Bobby. I walked down the street to the market store near my house and walked in. _

"_Hello there miss. What can I do for you?" the store clerk asked with a smile. _

"_I need to buy something for 4 boys." I said as I held up four fingers emphasizing my point._

"_Ah, I see." the man said nodding his head. "And what were we thinking? Stuffed Toys? Candy? Roses?"_

"_I have $20. I should get something for Ms. Evelyn too." I said as I showed him the money. _

"_And where does a girl your age get $20?" he asked suddenly curious. _

"_My mom gave it to me." I said nonchalantly, I had taken it out of my mom's purse before I left. She could survive without her booze and drugs for a day or two._

"_Oh, you must be a good girl." he said as I nodded and smiled in agreement. _

"_I'm thinking candy for the boys, and a pink rose for Ms. Evelyn." I said._

"_OK then, that's $13." he said ringing up my purchases and turning around to get 4 medium premade Valentine bags of candy. _

"_Could I also get one of those?" I said pointing to a Detroit Red Wings hat thinking it would be great for Bobby._

"_Sure Darling but that will cost you all your money." He said unsure if that's what I wanted to do. _

"_I want it." I said scooting the money closer to him. He placed everything in a brown bag and handed it to me. _

"_You be careful now." He said as I took the bag. I nodded and waved as I walked out the door and made my way to the Mercer house._

…_..._

_I walked up to the door and knocked, Ms. Mercer answered the door._

"_Chelsea it's so good to see you dear. Come in." She said with a smile on her face that never faded._

"_Thank you Ms. Mercer. This is for you." I said handing her the pink rose that was thankfully at the top of the bag._

"_Oh thank you sweetheart. I'm going to put it in a vase. Boys, Chelsea is here!" she said as she walked into the kitchen. I made my way into the living room as the boys ran down the stairs to greet me. _

"_Hey guys! Happy Valentine's day!" I said as they walked in and handed them their candy. All of them started tearing into their candy as I grabbed Bobby's sleeve. _

"_And this is for you." I said to Bobby as I handed him the hat. He dropped the candy and put on the hat. _

"_Thanks Chels. I love it." he said with a huge grin as I felt butterflies flutter in my stomach. He gave me a good hearted warm bear hug that I never wanted to end. As soon as he let me go he looked over at his brothers on the couch eating candy. "Did ya'll thank Chels?" he asked them. All three of the brothers stood up and dog piled Bobby and I in the middle of the room, just as Evelyn walked in._

"_Everyone smile!" she said as a flash of light went through the room. All of stood up in confusion realizing Evelyn had just taken a picture. _

"_Now let's get one with all of you together." She said with a smile. We had all learned not to argue with Evelyn when it came to pictures, she was the boss and you just did it. We all crowded together for a more 'normal' picture. Bobby held my hand as Jack held the other, Angel stood behind me with his arms around my neck and his chin resting on the top of my head and Jerry was in the front of us. _

"_Oh how adorable. Now go wash up for dinner. Don't eat any more of that candy!" Evelyn said as we ran to the kitchen to wash our hands. We walked out into the dining room and sat in our proper spots. Evelyn at the head of the table, Jack to her left then Jerry, Angel and I to her right and Bobby at the other head of the table. I smiled at the people surrounding me as they ate, this was my family and I would do anything for them. …..._

_After dinner Bobby and Angel did the dishes still paying the price for dropping cherry bombs in the school toilets the week before. Evelyn and Jerry were talking about a homework assignment that he had put off for a couple weeks because he didn't understand it and didn't want to do it. I stood in the doorway and sipped my coke as I felt a little tug on my arm. _

"_Chelsea, come with me." Jack said grinning up at me missing his 2 front teeth. I couldn't help but smile as I let him lead me up the stairs. _

"_I got you something for Valentine's day." he said shyly as we stood in his room that he was sharing with Jerry. He walked over to his side of the closet and hid something behind his back. He walked back over to me and pulled out a stuffed bear. _

"_Will you be my Chelsea Bear?" he asked as his cheeks redden in embarrassment. _

"_Of course Jackie! I would love to be your Chelsea bear." I said as I took the bear and hugged Jack. _

_I felt tears running down my cheeks. I reached up behind Jack and touched my face confused on why I was crying. _

My eyes fluttered open, I was crying. The brightness of the room took some getting used to, my eyes adjusted after a couple seconds of blinking. I opened my eyes and saw a tube sticking out of my mouth. Panic started to set it as I realized I had no idea where I was.

"Don't panic. Hold on a sec." A nurse said looking as shocked as I was as she began to remove the tube. I involuntarily gagged as she pulled the long tube out of my mouth. My throat felt raw and dry and my mouth felt sore from being open for so long. "I'm going to go get your doctor. I'll be back in a second. Try not to talk, I'll see if we can get you some water too."

I nodded, as soon as she was out of the room I tried to sit up as pain shot through my side. I grimaced and settled back to where I was as the nurse came back in with a cup of water. She placed it on the table and helped me sit up using the bed controls and handed me the water. It felt like liquid gold going down my throat, moisturizing my throat.

"Chelsea Rivers." The doctor said as he walked into the room and looked up from his chart. "How are we feeling?"

"My throat hurts and my left side." I croaked out, it sounded like I had whiskey voice and smoked a bunch of cigarettes. "How long have I been out?"


	19. What happened?

"You've been in a medically induced coma, for the last 3 days. You are a very lucky girl, Chelsea." The doctor said as he sat down on the bed. "You had 5 bullets in you, mostly on the left side of your body. Two in your leg, the other three were in your side. You're lucky they didn't hit any massive organs, or vessels." I nodded taking the information in.

"Where's Bobby? Angel? Jerry?" I asked suddenly remembering the events leading to this.

"I believe they're in the waiting room. They only left for a day after the ambulance brought you in." he said with a smile and stood up.

"You have people care about you that much." I smiled and restrained to snap back saying they weren't just people.

"I'll tell them they can come and see you now." He said as he walked out the door with the nurse. Moments later I could hear footsteps coming toward my room.

"Chelsea?" Angel asked as he walked in, as soon as he saw me he smiled.

"Your teeth really are freaky white Angel." I said as he came over to the bed. Jerry and Camille walked in laughing about my teeth comment.

"Hey girl, how are you feeling?" Camille asked as she made her way to my right side with Jerry.

"I'm in a little bit of pain but I'm OK." I said with a smirk. "I think they gave me morphine."

"You gave us one hell of a scare." Jerry said as Angel grabbed my hand, feeling the warmth from him made me realize how cold I really was.

"Where's Sofi?" I asked as I looked up at Angel.

"Where's Sofi?" I heard an unmistakable voice at the door. "You ask about Sofi before me?" Bobby walked into the room. I gave him a smile as he walked over to where Angel was standing. Without words Angel moved aside and let Bobby take his place. He kissed my forehead and sat down next to me.

"In answer to your question she's watching the kids. We took shifts." Camille said with a smile.

"Awe. You guys didn't have to stay here." I winced as the bed moved. "Babe, if you're going to sit with me can you get on my right side?"

"Why?" he asked confused and worried.

"My left side is all shot up. And you can lay next to me on this side." I said with a smile as he gave me an unbelieving look. "Hey you know what, I'm injured, you should do what I ask that way you get more lovin' when I recover." He stood up and moved to the other side as Camille and Jerry moved so he could.

"Yeah, she's defiantly on morphine. Wouldn't admit that shit otherwise." Angel said as he looked at the IV bag acting like he knew what the contents were.

"We are glad you're awake Chelsea." Jerry said smiling and shaking his head. Camille kissed my forehead then Jerry and they left.

"My teeth aint that white." Angel said as he kissed my cheek. I smirked at him as he walked out the door. Bobby stood up and took off his jacket and sat back down on the bed. He squished on and moved his arm behind my head. I snuggled into his side not caring how girly or needy I was being.

"I was shot you know." I said as he made a face.

"Yeah I know." He muttered and kissed my temple.

"So tell me what happened to Victor Sweet, since I know you didn't wait for me to wake up before you did a number on him." I said as he let out a low laugh he sighed and began his story.

"Well, after we got done talking to Green at the house and made sure you were going to live we began planning Jack's funeral. It was so hard without you Chels, Jerry and Camille had to do most of the work. Angel and I had no idea what the hell to do. After we took care of him we began planning out what to do with Sweet.-" he said as he told me everything. He told me that Fowler was dirty and had killed Green, how they had got Sweet's goons to agree and help them. They took down Fowler and Sweet the same day at the same time. Now we were all free, Jack and Ma could rest in peace.

Eventually we turned the TV on and flipped through channels. A dose of morphine had just been released through my IV and I could feel it taking its effects. I looked up at Bobby as my eyes began to flutter.

"I love you." I muttered in my drugged state and drifted off into sleep once again.


	20. Epilogue

**Ok guys this is the last chapter! The sequel is up it's called **_**Somebody to Love. **_**Please read and enjoy!**

3 months later...

Bobby, Angel and Jerry hammered out the finishing touches on the horribly damaged house from months ago. You could barely tell that a shootout had happened. Since we all came back home when Ma died we decided to stay for a little while. Bobby and I took Ma's room, Angel had cleaned out his room for himself and Sofi which was actually quite large when you took all the junk out of it.

When I came home from the hospital it had been difficult to say the least. The house looked like it was going to fall over from all of the bullet holes and damage but we had nowhere else to go. I was put on bed rest for a couple weeks so I stayed in Ma's room figuring out finances, moving, renovating, and just everything in general. When that was done that's when the shit hit the fan.

Everyone was out getting groceries or supplies as I wandered the house; I made the mistake of going into Jack's room. I stayed in there for 2 days refusing to move, leave or do anything. I had avoided everything that had happened until that moment. Bobby eventually forced me out and back into our room and helped me through it from there. After that I had accepted it and everyone else seemed to be dealing with it all at the same level of moving on.

I walked out of the house with a pen and paper in my hands.

"Hey guys, I am going out for an hour or so, need anything?" I asked.

"Nah I'm good." Jerry said as I hugged him.

"Condoms." Angel whispered in my ear. "Non-latex"

"I know Angel. They're on my list." I said laughing as I walked over to Bobby. He put down a piece of wood he was going to cut and wrapped his arms around me.

"I don't need anything." he said as he kissed me. "Well, maybe condoms for us too."

"OK babe." I said smiling as he let me go. "Alright so other than food, toilet paper and condoms, no one needs anything?" Everyone stood silently staring at me in shock at my bluntness.

"I'll take that as a no. See you guys in a while." I said as I walked to my car got in and drove away laughing.

…...

I put all of the grocery bags in the trunk, I grabbed the bouquet of roses I had bought and walked to the front of my car wincing as I got into the divers seat. I could legally drive now but it still hurt a bit trying to get in.

"Time to face reality." I said to myself as I drove to the cemetery. Since my episode after I came home from the hospital I didn't want to go to the cemetery, even if I wanted to I probably wouldn't have been allowed.

Since I was able to drive and do things on my own I felt was time to visit Green, Ma and Jack. I parked my car on the side of the makeshift road, grabbed the bouquet and got out. I walked through the snow and tugged my jacket a little closer to myself. I came across Green's grave first, ironically around the same area we had been at Ma's funeral. I took out a couple of the roses from the bouquet and set them on the grave stone.

"Hey Green." I said, not really knowing what I was doing and suddenly felt really stupid. I looked around the cemetery; I was literally the only living person there.

"I miss you man. I mean we haven't really been close like we were back in the good old days, but still." I looked around again becoming uncomfortable with my decision.

"You were a good cop Green, a good guy too. No matter what the brothers said. Rest in peace, man." I touched the roses once more then continued further into the cemetery. I walked up to Ma's grave marker. This was the first time I had seen it up close, it felt a little weird. I glanced over at Jacks grave next to Ma's, I tried to keep composure and not cry as I separated the rest of the roses, pink for Ma and red for Jack. I placed Ma's on her grave and Jack's on his, I stepped away from Jack's grave as if it was on fire still unable to deal with the fact that he was there. I stood in front of Ma's grave and sat down and began to clean the marker.

"Hey Ma." I said with a smile. I sat and stared at the marker as a silent tear fell down my cheek.

"So much has happened in the last 4 months. I don't know who to turn to sometimes for advice, I miss you Ma." I wiped the tears from my face. "Bobby and I are back together. That's good, I think." I said changing the subject to something that would've made her smile. I let out a chuckle as my face fell.

"Why couldn't you have just told me how much you wanted me to go back to school? I know that was originally my plan and all, but I never wanted to burden you with helping me pay. But I'm already in my first semester of school. Right now my goal is to start teaching within a year, don't know how realistic that goal is but right now that's what I'm going for." After I said my part I looked around the cemetery for what felt like the hundredth time. I felt so exposed and awkward in the middle of the silent place; I looked back to her grave.

"Thanks for being my mom, and inspiring me to be me, and believing in me when no one else would. I love you mom." I stood up and almost walked away but stopped and stared across the cemetery. After months of dealing with him gone I still wanted to believe it was a nightmare and he was still alive, just out of town preforming. I turned around and stared at his grave marker like it was an alien. I slowly walked closer to it cautiously as if it was going to attack me if I moved to fast. I sat down near Ma's marker and slowly wiggled over to Jacks. I reached out and touched the marker, tracing his name with my finger.

"Oh Jackie Boy." I started as tears began to fall. "It should have been me. I've lived my life, you were barely beginning. What do I have to live for? Huh? You had musical talent and a kind heart, I'm a cold hearted bitch that has no talent at all." I wiped the tears away and sat back shaking my head. I looked around and then to the sky, it had begun to snow lightly.

"You always told me we can't change the past, or who we are." I paused for a moment and looked down at his marker. "Fuck, I miss you fairy and your stupid wisdom." I shook my head as a small smile spread across my face.

"You know, when you gave me that bear I knew right then that you wouldn't be a heartbreaker like your brothers. You would be a hopeless romantic, and you were. I remember covering for you on so many occasions so your brothers wouldn't give you as hard of a time. You always treated women like they should. Not saying your brothers don't, Jerry never had a chance once Camille entered his life, but Bobby and Angel well they could take a few bits of advice from your book." I moved the roses a bit closer to his marker as I kissed my hand and pressed it against the marker. "I love you Jackie boy."

I slowly stood up and with one last look walked to my car while the snow slowly fell from the sky.


End file.
